The New Orleans Diaries
by AgelessGrace
Summary: S1 Ep. 1-with a twist: Six years have passed since Esther Mikaelson's death in Mystic Falls. Six years in which Elena's younger sister, Alynia, has done her best to put those events behind her. When she visits New Orleans on a college graduation trip, she's caught in the Mikaelson family conflict again. Only this time, a baby's life hangs in the balance-and possibly her own.
1. Chapter 1

OOC: First Originals story, so please be kind. Changing the timeline a bit here for this one: Elena had a brother and a sister, a sister that was heavily involved in the Mikaelson drama in seasons two through five of TVD. Klaus and Hayley had their one-night stand six years after Esther's death. The rest is pretty much the same. Reviews are love!

* * *

 _D_ _ear Diary,_

 _I had the dream again, the one in which I died forever. The one in which Elijah never came to Mystic Falls, where my sister wasn't the Petrova Doppleganger, and vampires were regulated to the B-rated movies Caroline, Bonnie, Elena and I threw popcorn at and mocked endlessly during Girl's Only weekend. Stephan and Damon were just two hot brothers with the sad misfortune of loving the same girl (with myself mooning after Damon like he was the answer to my every prayer). I never win his heart in these dreams, though, which I think is the saddest part of them all. Even over the fact that, without Elijah's intervention, my cancer eventually got the better of me. I died a scant two years after graduation, buried next to Mom and Dad._

 _My death was horrible in the way all cancer-death's are, or so I'm told. Wasting away from the chemo, from the very things that were supposed to save me. So skeletal in death that Elena and Stephan ordered a closed-casket viewing. It was better for everyone that way, and funerals really are for the living. Those of us that die are beyond the cares, the need to say the goodbyes. And the tears and prayers of our loved ones hold as much sway on our souls whether landing on unliving flesh or polished wood. No, funerals are not for the dead. That's what the comfort of the grave is for, the cool, peaceful, loamy earth like a blanket that magically soothes all aches, all pains._

 _My death was horrible, but death itself was truly a relief. So I stood next to my coffin and watched. Watched Tyler and Caroline, newly engaged, placing flowers on the mirror-like surface of my coffin. Watched Stephan holding Elena close, letting her sob into his chest while Damon stood like a silent guardian above them. He'd always look after them both, I knew. Bonnie and Matt chatted softly in the back pew, a new bond forming between them. Funny, I could see their futures entwining with every word, like light weaving itself in majestic Celtic knots above their heads, binding them together for a Happily Ever After._

 _They deserved it, all my friends. Happiness. Or happy for now._

 _And there were no vampires in Mystic Falls. And there were no werewolves in Mystic Falls. And there were no witches in Mystic Falls._

 _…_ _and there was peace._

 _Even for me._

 _No, especially for me._

* * *

I gazed down at those last four words glowing on my iPad and fought not to frown. Something about them twisted in my gut, churning with the coffee that had been my morning breakfast until I wasn't sure I was going to keep it down. Surely, I was happy now, right? Six years had passed since Ester's death, five years since the curse on Klaus Mikaelson was broken, since Mikael was dead forever, and since the entirety of my junior year in Hell ended. And there I sat, no longer the sixteen year old child hanging on her older sister's every word. No longer a part of Mystic Falls in any sense of the word, either. I'd taken my queue from Elijah's note to me right after his mother—I meant Ester's—final death and got the hell out of that town.

 _Go, Alynia Gilbert. Go and live your life, as I am finally free to live mine. Know you are only as alone as you wish to remain._

 _Always and Forever,_

 _Elijah_

I'd done exactly that. I was my own person, finally. A civil engineer freshly minted and certified from UNLV, good ol' University of Nevada, Las Vegas. I had a job waiting for me in Seattle with a good firm. I had nothing to look back on, nothing to take with me from the place of my birth, from that damned town in nowhere Virginia.

I was happy.

Wasn't I?

The coffee in the pit of my stomach, combined with the remnants of that last dream, seemed to disagree with my assessment.

"Hey, 'Nia, you awake?"

I jerked, slapping the cover closed on my iPad. "Yeah," I called back. "Yeah, Danielle. Sorry, got lost reading."

Danielle stuck her head around the corner of the bathroom, blond hair plastered to her scalp, fresh from the shower. "You okay? You sound like someone walked over your grave or something."

Wow. If she only knew the half of it—which I would never tell. I threw a pillow in her direction instead. "Is that some kind of crack because we're touring the French Quarter today."

She dodged the pillow easily, smirking. "Totally. You know Ellis has this obsession with gravestone etchings and stuff. Absolutely morbid if you ask me, but she's so certain we're going to find graves with our names on them in some form."

I wrinkled my nose at that. "Just how many Alynia Gilbert's do you think there are? It's not exactly up there in America's Favorite Baby Name category."

"I'll take Things I Absolutely Give No Fucks About for one-thousand, Alex," she smirked, dipping back into the little hotel bathroom. "We all agreed to take this tour during the day so we can drunk our brains out tonight. I'm honestly counting on you and Lexi to keep me awake through the whole graveyard snooze-fest. I mean, who wants to hear about dead people rotting for centuries and fake ghosts and crap?"

"Apparently, Ellis does."

"You see," Danielle snapped, popping back around the corner and leveling her tooth brush at me like it was a laser pointer. "That's why she graduated with a degree in Pretty Picture Painting—"

"You mean Fine Arts with a minor in animation?"

"—and we graduated with engineering degrees. I'm not knocking the work she put into her degree at all, but, seriously? If this graveyard starts sinking into the big swamp place—they have a special name for it out here but screw me if I know or care—then people call us to fix it. You know, engineers with actual real jobs? Painting pictures of Ghosts in the Graveyard? Dude, wasn't that a game we played as children? Isn't it time to grow out of tween fairy tales like ghosts and crap?"

"The word you were looking for is 'bayou,' not 'big swamp place,'" I corrected, hiding a grin behind a sip of my coffee. "And yes, that was a bit mocking of Ellis' choice of career. She is our friend. Besides, you have to have a vivid imagination to do what she does. Where do you think she gets her inspiration?"

Dani popped her toothbrush back into her mouth, rolling her lovely green eyes. "Whath weth do ith realth imathgination," she held up one finger in pause, and dipped back into the bathroom to spit in the sink. "Sorry, I meant to say 'what we do takes real imagination.' It takes talent to look at lines on a paper and see the entirely of what we are designing on two dimensional paper. And we don't need to chase ghost stories to do that. After this tour, the only ghost chasing I want to star in is 'Scooby Doo and the case of Why the Hell is My Beer Empty.'"

I half-laughed/half-coughed coffee onto the floor. "You are such a bitch," I grinned.

"That's why you love me."

"That, and your terrible taste in music."

She narrowed her eyes at me in mock anger. "You know what else is terrible? Bleeding out all over the pavement."

"So don't do that," I quipped right back. "Jesus, woman, we're supposed to be in New Orleans for our last trip together before we graduate. I don't have time for you to bleed out all over the place."

This time, she laughed. "You see, this is why we are friends. You give back as a good as you get."

And maybe, just maybe, my trepidation about my life wasn't so bad anymore. My life was amazing, or at least was about to become amazing. And it was filled with sarcastic, breathing, human people. Just like myself.

So when Dani vanished back into the bathroom to finish dressing, I flopped back down on the bed, fishing through my bag until I found it. The well-worn paper, delicately folded along the creases he'd made, protected from time and my own hand in its little plastic sleeve. I don't know why I took it everywhere with me. Maybe as a reminder that the crazy events of my past really did occur. A tangible piece of evidence that my sister was, in fact, now a vampire. That a vampire had saved my life and I'd saved his. Or maybe because… hell, I don't know. Maybe as proof that I made it out. I survived when so many hadn't.

But maybe it was time to let go.

I flicked a glance towards the bathroom, the somewhat shrill tones of Skrillex beating against the door until it nearly vibrated in its frame. As much as I hated dub step, I did love the girl who listened to it as if she were my own sister.

 _Know you are only as alone as you wish to remain._

I wasn't alone anymore. Not with Danni, Ellis, and Lexi.

It was time to let go.

I flicked open the iPad again, saving my journal entry and tapping the Google App. "Find historic bridges near the French Quarter."

A moment later I was reading about the Crescent City Connection, both its modern design and its history. Yes, that would do it.

"We're adding a stop to the tour today," I told Dani as she stepped out of the bathroom.

"God, tell me it's not to some voodoo shop or something. I might have to kill you."

"Nope, I want to travel across the Crescent City Connection."

"Why?"

I turned the screen towards her. "Looks interesting, for one. For another, I want to say goodbye to something. That's as good a place as any."

For once, Dani's cat-like features softened. "I know you lost your parents on a bridge, and—"

I was shaking my head before she'd even started speaking. "Nothing like that, though thank you for asking," I took a deep breath. "You're right that this is our last big trip together before we run away to our new careers, move to new cities. I think it would be symbolic to do a… uh… well, ceremony of goodbye. You know, let go of the things always holding us back."

Her expression sharpened again. "Well, I know Ellis would be all over it. So why not? I can toss in a tube of lipstick or something. Cast out yesterday's colors to make way for tomorrows or some such hippie shit."

It took everything in me not to glance at my bag, at that note. It was time.

Beyond time.

* * *

"You have got to try this," Ellis beamed, sliding the drink my way.

I eyed the 'cauldron of magic' that was the supposed drink of choice in this slice of the French Quarter with mildly veiled skepticism. After the Tarot Card Cookies and the Ouija Board Bread sandwiches we'd had in the St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 Gift Shop and Lunch Shack, I was pretty much mystified out.

Not that the day was a total pisser of a tourist trap. The cemetery, itself, had a quiet sense of power to it, a foreboding sensation that even Dani was hesitant to break. We walked the graves with our tour guide, quietly observing the dead with a reverence we never possessed in any other city. Maybe there was something to the stories in the French Quarter. Maybe all the streets and shops were truly haunted, just not in the Wes Craven/splatter-punk way. Maybe memory was tangible in this place and walked the streets with the living, layer after layer of hopes and dreams and thoughts and fears blending into its own reality. Maybe the dead here did watch over the living.

Perhaps in a century or so, some group of girls would walk these streets and feel me and my friends laughing in the sunlight, carefree for probably the last time in our lives.

I tried to shake that last thought away and brought the straw to my lips, sampling the drink. My skin continued to crawl, though, acting as if I could still feel the invisible eyes on me. Someone watching me constantly, nearly glimpsed from the corner of my eye, or hidden behind the graves. That sensation continued to cling to me like a film, filtering my whole day through a haze of paranoia.

Impossible, I told myself, giving Ellis a thumb's up. The drink was tasty, if a bit sweet for my taste. Dani flat out rolled her eyes, shooting her fifth shot of whiskey and chasing it down with a healthy dose of Dos Equix. Ellis's smile ratcheted up a few watts at my reaction and she pushed through the crowds to get herself another one.

"Don't encourage her," Lexi yelled above the live jazz blasting around us. "I can't possibly handle another cemetery tour."

"Suck it up," Dani interjected. "Or should I say, drink it up. We agreed to go back for the haunted ghost tour at midnight, though whatever possessed me to do that had to be the Ghost of Mistakes Past."

"Whatever," I slurped up more of the drink, alcoholic warmth spreading from my stomach through the rest of me. "I intend to be well and truly drunk when we do that. But I'll go for Ellis."

"The shit we do for friendship," Lexi sighed dramatically, puffing her raven bangs away from her eyes. "We should have gone to Hawaii. Hot cabana boys serving us drinks with little umbrellas in them, rubbing tanning oil all over our skin with their strong hands… And no spooky graveyards or tourist cookies that taste like cardboard."

I nearly groaned in agreement. "That sounds like heaven right now."

Lexi tilted her head towards me, expression worried. "You okay? You've been out of it since we hit that graveyard this morning. What gives?"

"She's depressed from the lack of sex," Dani answered for me, blue eyes twinkling with laughter. "Seriously, this trip has been more like a family outing than our last big party before graduation. We _all_ need to get laid."

"Not all of us define ourselves by the amount of strange we're hitting," I laughed.

"Maybe some of you should," she countered with a wink. "Take a look around. This place is teaming with men that need a little me in their lives. I'm determined to fill that need."

"Whore," Lexi laughed.

"I prefer the term 'empowered and strong woman who always gets what she wants,' thank you very much," Dani winked. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to dance."

"Go with her," I pushed Lexi's elbow. "Don't let her go anywhere with anyone alone. She's tough, but this isn't home, you know? She doesn't know this city or where to go if there's trouble."

"Sure," Lexi nodded, still staring at me with concern. "Are you sure you're okay?"

No, I wanted to say. The word was on my tongue, ready to be screamed to the world. No, I wasn't okay. But I didn't know why, and that was the most frustrating part. "I'm fine," I lied, tossing a fair imitation of Dani's trademark saucy wink for emphasis. "Seriously, go with her. I'll keep Ellis entertained."

Those lovely blue eyes narrowed. "No," she said slowly, shaking her head and grabbing my wrist. "No, we all need to dance. Stop drinking that fruity crap and come and dance with us."

As if that were a choice. She grabbed my arm, drug me out onto the dance floor and into the thick of people. I had no idea how to dance to jazz, and apparently neither did the crowd of people. They jumped and clapped and called out to the musicians, swaying here or there as the beat moved them. Lexi had no problems with it, either, quickly loosing herself in the scream of the horns and the pounding of the drums. She could have been a local for all anyone knew. Dani and I shared a grin, and proceeded to try and emulate our friend. No matter where we were, or what we did, Lexi always found the pulse of the town and led us along for the ride. New Orleans was no exception.

Except… except that damnable feeling of being watched was getting worse, compounding until I felt it more than the beat of the music. Until the need to run was crushing my heart.

God, what was wrong with me?

"I need another drink," I roared into Dani's ear, trying not to panic.

"Get me one, too," she roared back above the music. "In fact, bring me two. I think I've found my lucky stranger for the night."

She pointed behind her hand, indicating a man with dark skin and flashing eyes, with features that would have made Venus, herself, come down from Olympus to be with him. My heart leaped out of my chest to slam against the roof of my mouth, fear washing any sense of attraction I'd felt right out sight. Vampire, my brain screamed. That man was a vampire, and he was old. At least two hundred years old. Which made him two hundred times more than she could handle. Don't ask me how I knew that, and right in that moment, I didn't care.

"Don't," I jumped in her line of sight. "Not that one. He's not the one. Look, there are plenty of hot guys around this place. Just… not that one."

She wrinkled her nose at me. "Is it because he's black? Nia, I never thought of you as—"

"What? No! Don't be an idiot—both in assuming that and secondly in going anywhere with him. He's dangerous."

Dani peeked over my shoulder, a sly smile touching her perfect lips. "I know, that's why I want him. Something finally dangerous in this supposed city of crazy darkness. Please, the Vegas strip holds more danger than this decrepit city. If you ask me, we were gypped. The only thing scary in New Orleans is the price of the drinks and the fake voodoo acts. Besides," she glanced back at me. "Who said I'd go anywhere with him? Up against the wall, college library style, is better for me anyway. No useless goodbyes in the morning and all that shit."

"Please," I tried again, taking her face in my hands. "Not him. Find someone else. He scares me."

"You, maybe. But apparently not Lexi."

I whipped around, watching in that slow-motion horror movie way as Lexi and the vampire smiled at one another. His arm slipped around her waist, swaying to the music, fitting together like the keys of a piano.

Dani sighed heavily. "Great, now I have to find a new target. No way Lexi-the-Always-Laid is going to be the only one getting any tonight."

I heard her stomp off behind me, her anger brushing against my skin like hot steely needles. I shivered, rubbing my hands over my arms and tried not to panic. I couldn't let Lexi do this. I had to stop her and—

I felt him before his hand touched mine, the pressure inside me inflating until it burst from my flesh in a soundless cry. Darkness swam across my vision, my knees buckling. But he was there, his other arm wrapping around my waist, pressing my back to his chest. Just the contact of his body against mine silenced the screaming panic inside. Like the culmination of this collision of fate had finally arrived. There was nothing else to anticipate, just like there was nothing I could do.

I was in the arms of an Original again.

God.

Oh, _God._

"You're the one that's been following us all day," I whispered, knowing he could hear me.

"Following you," he corrected gently in my ear, fingers lacing with mine, wrapping my arms around his in a parody of a lover's embrace. "Hello there, Alynia."

Tears burned my eyes.

"Hello, Elijah."


	2. Chapter 2

Dear Diary,

It's happening again.

It was never over, never behind me. I could toss a thousand notes over a thousand bridges and still I'd never escape this, escape _them_.

Elijah, Niklaus, vampires, witches…

Once again I'm forced to place my life and the lives of those I love in whatever mercy resides in Elijah Mikaelson. And yet, through the fear and the paralyzing hopelessness, I can't help but notice the irony of our situation. In Mystic Falls, he needed our help to recover his family. Now I need his help to save mine. Ellis, Lexi, and Dani are my family, regardless of who gave birth to us. I'd do anything to save them, and worst of all, he knows this.

Stars in heaven, he gave his _word_ to me and I gave _mine_ in return.

What have I done? God, what have I DONE?

The question that scares me the most, though, is what will I _**do in the future**_ to keep that bargain?

The last deal we made with a Mikaelson cost Elena her mortal life. What will this one cost _ME_?

* * *

I wouldn't look him in the eyes. Not when he spun me around to face him, and not when his arm remained fixed about my waist. My arms braced against his chest, hands pressing him back to no avail. How we must have looked in that moment, he and I. Like long lost lovers reunited after years. Funny, how a look of barely controlled panic is so similar to that oft cliched Hollywood pause when one's heart skips a beat when confronted with a true love. His feet moved side to side on the floor, a slow swaying mine followed in turn. Dancing to the jazz that bleated around us like some kind of dying animal. I was freaking dancing with him on this packed floor, with barely the room to take half a step in any direction.

Dancing.

Elijah and I were dancing.

While the past crashed against us, breaking on our psyche and spraying droplets of memories across our souls.

He leaned forward, mouth brushing my ear. "Put your arms around my neck," he whispered.

"No."

His lips curve slightly, and I somehow understood it wasn't an amused expression. "Alynia, do I need to remind you what will happen if someone interrupts us? I'd rather not harm an innocent bystander who misinterpreted my hold on you."

His hold on me… Now that was a loaded statement if I'd ever heard one.

"Then let go," I whispered back.

"No."

"Why?"

Soft laughter was my answer, the hair on the back of my neck standing on end. "I seem to recall you asking that question a lot during our first meeting."

The rush of memories finally won, floating to the surface on the wave of my rising panic. I tried to step away again. He covered it by stepping forward, drawing our dance into a sort of stunted waltz. But that arm never moved, and I didn't gain as much as an inch of space between us. His free hand appeared beneath my chin, tilting my face upwards as if to kiss me.

"Do you remember?" he asked.

God, how much I didn't want to…

###

" _Excuse me. To whom it may concern? You're making a great mistake if you think that you can beat me," the Devil, himself intoned. "You can't. You hear that?"_

 _He grabbed the old coat rack in the corner, the one made of solid wood, and snapped off the hooks at the top as if they were tissue paper. Each snap punctuating his words, each snap causing my heart to stop. Fear like I'd never known shot through me, spreading through my body like wildfire. God, I was only sixteen! I was a kid! I was supposed to be mooning over boys and worrying about a date for the prom, not hiding in an old house getting ready to save my sister from the scariest man I'd ever seen._

 _Damon grimaced at Elijah's words, his face a mask of pain. Blood didn't exactly flow freely from the wooden shaft imbeded in his shoulder anymore, but enough colored the fabric of his shirt to let me know he was hurt worse than he let on. We'd made a serious mistake in firing one of those stake-guns at him, at this Elijah character. He'd pulled the thing from his hand as if it didn't matter, as if it were a splinter… and then flung it through the wall. Literally THROUGH THE WALL! It missed Rose's face by mere millimeters, slamming through old dry-wall and right through Damon's shoulder. The vervain bombs tumbled from his grasp, shattering on the thread-bare carpet without a sound._

 _Shattering, along with the rest of our plan._

 _Damon was supposed to go after Elijah next, distract him enough for Stephan to reload, for Elena to make her way out to the waiting car. I was supposed to help guide her. One glance at that shoulder and I knew, knew with that sinking surety that I'd have to take Damon's place. He wasn't in any shape to go out there, and I sure as hell didn't trust this Rose woman to help save my sister. Not when she was the reason we were in this predicament to begin with!_

 _That left only me._

 _Damon must have sensed what I was about to do (or read my mind, who the hell knew what Vampires could really do? It wasn't like there was a Human to Vamp for Dummies book I could run out and peep!), and shook his head. "No," he mouthed. "Don't do it. He'll kill you, Nia."_

 _Another snap as the last hook came free, causing us all to jump._

" _I repeat, you cannot beat me. So I want the girl on the count of three, or heads will roll."_

 _I glanced back at Damon, at Rose as she huddled behind him like some kind of coward. Like I wanted to, truth be told! Whether that made her the smart one and me the idiot for contemplating going out there, I didn't know. Something had to be done, or this monster was going to steal my sister. I'd lost my mother and my father. I couldn't loose Elena, too. I just couldn't._

 _I was about to go out there and play distraction._

 _Me._

 _A human._

" _Do we understand each other?" Death Incarnate asked._

 _I moved before I knew I was doing it, Damon's fingernails raking across my sleeve as I ran around the corner and into Elijah's path._

" _Here!"_

 _The monster whirled about, the weight of that gaze hammering into me, nearly driving me to my knees. Power. God, so much power in him. The weight of centuries pressed in against my thoughts. Sobs tore free from my lips without reservation. I wasn't ashamed of crying in front of him, not with the fear that battered my pride into dust. All that remained was the need to save my sister from him. It was my everything._

" _Please," I gasped out, forcing myself to lift my arms in surrender and take shaky steps towards him. "Just tell me why, please. Why are you taking my sister?"_

 _He tipped his head to the side, utterly still except for that movement. Studying me._

 _And then he moved._

 _Fast._

 _Lightning._

 _Fear-born adrenaline and being captain of the track team let me escape his grasp by milliseconds, let me leap backward at the last second. He compensated with ease, standing right in front of me, close enough to touch, and I was too terrified to do anything but mutter my broken question. "Why?"_

 _The corner of his mouth twitched, perhaps in an almost smile? I stared at those lips with all my might, determined not to meet his gaze. The weight of his desire to trap my mind was there, eating at the edges of my thoughts, my self-control. My eyes kept trying to rise, sweat beading on my forehead. I wouldn't look him in the eyes. I wouldn't. I woul—_

 _The hand that wasn't holding the implement of my friend's impending destruction snapped forward, latching onto my wrist._

" _NO!"_

 _He jerked me forward, turning me until my back was pressed against him, his arm restraining me. And that mouth brushed against my throat. "Human, as well," he spoke as if to himself. "And yet…"_

 _The hand on my waist disappeared and reappeared in my hair, yanking my head back until I thought my spine would snap. My eyes snapped open on reflex, and he was just there, filling every inch of my vision. I had no vervain to protect me. I wasn't even supposed to know that vampires existed, and wouldn't have if not for Caroline's slip up not a month before! But I knew now, and I knew my sister was in danger. And I knew what was coming next._

 _And I knew I couldn't stop it._

 _Surprisingly his mind was light, ethereal, a tiny hair-thin tendril of liquid silver slipping between my thoughts. Like he held back the raging torrent of his will for fear it would shatter me. And it would have. God, it would have._

" _Obey me," was all he said._

 _Just two little words._

 _And the fear melted._

 _I felt so silly. Stars, why had I feared him at all? It seemed very logical to listen to him. He was my elder, after all, and hadn't mom and dad always told me to listen to my elders? Especially if I was in danger? If this very situation didn't count as danger, I wasn't certain what did. I nodded, and he released me. And yes, that_ was _a bit of a smile that twitched his lips. He waved me behind him, and I obeyed quickly, finally safe for the first time in months. Since learning that some things that went bump in the night were real and deadly and were dating my sister, actually._

 _No, finally feeling secure since my parents died._

 _It was the best feeling in the world._

" _I'll come with you," Elena cried, appearing at the top of the stairs. "Just, please don't hurt my friends. Please let my sister go. They just wanted to help me out."_

 _I smiled, staring up at my sister with such relief. It was good she was doing this, obeying him. It would all be okay, wouldn't it? It would all be explained and we would be safe and—_

 _Elijah moved again, that faster-than-sight action all vampires had, climbing those stairs with that weapon in hand._

 _I frowned. Why did he need a weapon if he was going to protect us? There wasn't anyone here that needed to die. "Mr. Elijah—"_

" _Silence," he commanded, not bothering to glance back at me. My teeth snapped shut with an audible click. "Remain right where you are. This won't take long."_

 _I pressed myself against the wall next to the door, obeying even though my heart jackhammered in my chest. Why was I afraid again? Maybe I should go see Damon and explain to him that we were all okay if we obey—_

 _I turned my head in his direction, and saw Rose creeping towards me. She pressed a finger to her lips, warning me to stay silent. I opened my mouth again to scream, to give warning. She was going to take me away from Elijah, wasn't she? This horrible creature that had kidnapped my sister was going to take me away from the first person to make me feel safe since I lost my parents, and I was supposed to be okay with this? He'd ordered me to stay right here. I couldn't disobey._

 _I screamed—no sound left my mouth, the order to remain silent sealing my voice inside my throat. I couldn't move, and I couldn't speak, and I couldn't make a sound by smacking my hands on the walls or throwing things. Silence meant silence._

" _What game are you playing with me?" Elijah asked my sister._

 _Rose grabbed my shoulders and ran, hurling us both into another room. I couldn't see what was happening now, and that hurt more than anything._

 _I heard shattering glass and Elijah scream. I screamed soundlessly with him._

 _Rose held me as I tried to run to him, to save him. To, at the very least, return to the wall where he told me to wait! I kicked and punched and twisted and tried. Oh, stars, I tried._

 _The sounds of a scuffle rained down on us, of people tumbling down the stairs. My arm snapped under the strength of Rose's grasp, and she cursed softly, readjusting her grip. But it didn't matter. The pain didn't matter, not compared to the screaming in my heart. Why were my friends doing this? Didn't they know this wasn't necessary? He was going to protect us if we obeyed! He was going to save me! Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Damon move, slam that coat-rack-turned-stake deep into Elijah's chest and pin him to the door._

" _NO!" I screamed in silent agony._

 _God, it was like loosing a parent all over again, watching the light go out of his eyes._

" _Nia?" Elena called. "Nia, where are you?"_

 _Rose let me go, and I collapsed to the floor, finally free to give voice to my sobs._

" _NIA!"_

" _Why did you kill him? Why? He was going to save us. He was going to…"_

 _The pain of my arm, of Elijah's loss, was too much. Darkness ate at my vision, and I felt my body going weightless. I was passing out._

 _I didn't care. Let me die with him._

 _The last thing I remembered was Elena's tears on my cheek, and the taste of hot copper on my tongue._

 _Then blackness._

 _###_

"Nia? Oh, sorry!"

I blinked, snapping back into reality. Ellis of all people stood beside us, two more of those fruity drinks in her hands. She looked rather sheepish as she glanced between us. That probably had do do with the fact that somehow, during my retreat down bad memory lane, I'd done what Elijah asked. My arms were around his neck, going so far as to put my head on his shoulder. The fingers of one hand gently slipped through my hair. But the other hand, or should I say arm, remained around my waist. Every bit the inflexible bar of steel I remembered.

"Ellis," I blinked, glancing between her and the man that could kill us both before we drew our next breath. "I… This… ah…"

Ellis raised both glasses in surrender, shaking her head. "No need to explain," she grinned. "I was interrupting. Sorry."

And then she winked at me. God, she winked!

Elijah's eyebrow raised all the way at that, and his smile ratcheted up a billion watts. "Nothing to apologize for," he said easily, the charming image of a nice guy that had fooled so many back home. "I'm Elijah. Alynia and I are old friends."

" _Elijah_ Elijah?" Ellis gaped. "The Elijah who wrote the note?"

I winced. Shit, I had shown her that note, hadn't I? Shown it to her and let her read it before I tossed it over the edge of the bridge.

It was his turn to glance between us, though that gaze rested more on me than anything. "I missed something, haven't I?"

Ellis beamed a grin at him in return. "Nope. Nothing. Not my place to say," she flicked her gaze back to me. "I told you New Orleans was magic. But that wasn't why I stopped by. Lexi and Dani wanted to let you know they'll meet us a the tour point later tonight. They found a side party to attend."

Side party. That was our old code for a quick hook-up. Sounded much nicer than 'side piece.'

And the look Ellis gave me led me to believe she thought I'd done the same—with Elijah.

"See you then!" she laughed, turning back towards the bar.

"NO," I grabbed her arm, feeling his tighten in warning. "Ellis, what side party?"

"The guy Lexi was dancing with, I think his name is Marcel? Anyway, he really liked Lexi and invited her to a private party. One he promised was filled with true New Orleans delights, not this tourist crap. He said he'd have her back here in time for the tour. Naturally, Dani wasn't going to let her leave alone. So she went, too."

I felt the blood drain from my face. "They… left? She swore she wouldn't leave!"

"Yeah," Ellis frowned, wariness rising in her eyes. "It's no big deal. I stayed here with you, and Dani went with Lexi. It's our rule, remember? We don't go anywhere alone. They'll be fine."

I closed my eyes and tried not to faint.

Dani and Lexi… in the grip of a real vampire.

Me and Ellis… in the path of an Original.

Dear god, how did this happen?

"Nia, you don't look so good," Ellis was saying, her gaze sweeping between me and the innocent appearing Grim Reaper clinging to me. "Maybe you and I should go. Seriously."

"I wouldn't worry too much about your friends," Elijah cut in, pouring charm into every word. "I happen to know Marcel personally. He wouldn't let anything happen to such lovely visitors to our fair city."

For all her faith in the supernatural, her love for ghost stories and past lives and all the things that made Dani want to scream, Ellis wasn't an idiot. She knew a con job when she saw one. Even one as masterful as Elijah's. And Elijah shifted in return, the power in him building, leaving a wave of goosebumps along my skin. Ellis didn't know about vampires. She didn't know how dangerous it was to look one in the eye.

And she'd meet his gaze, alright. She'd stare him down thinking she was helping me. That a direct confrontation was the best way to deal with a drunk guy at a club who happened to be all handsy with your best friend. Normally, she was right.

But this wasn't normal.

This was as far from freaking normal as it got.

"Ellis, I'm fine," I lied, throwing my own fake charm behind those words. "I've had a lot to drink, and you know how much I hate it when Dani runs off like this."

The power in him remained constant, but it had… stilled. Waiting. Waiting to see what would happen next.

Ellis's eyes tracked back and forth between us. "Convince me," she said flatly.

"Gladly," Elijah replied.

That power rose, and I could feel the compulsion coming on. There was only one thing I could do to stop it—well one thing that wouldn't end with us both dead.

I rose up on tip-toe, took his face in my hands, and kissed him.

To my credit, he was a shocked at the action as I was. He stiffened, the arm around me utterly still, as if trying to decide whether to pull me in closer or push me away. Evidently the former notion won. I was suddenly crushed against him, and I gasped against his mouth. His lips parted accordingly, and for the first time I tasted him. Truly tasted him, my eyes closing of their own accord. I was vaguely aware of Ellis puffing out a laugh and muttering something like 'totally convinced' and 'use protection' before his tongue hit mine and I literally saw stars. It was a good kiss, a fantastic kiss. One of those kisses that women in the 1940's did that leg pop thing to indicate how awesome it was.

His hand caressed my cheek, tilting my head slightly to the side, depending the kiss.

He had never touched me like this in Mystic Falls. There everything had been… protective? Was that the right word? Like an older brother looking out for a younger sibling. But I wasn't a child anymore, a fact that he was keenly aware of as well.

When the kiss broke, when we surfaced for air, the charm was gone from those expressive eyes. Replaced with that look from all those years ago, the look of a predator gazing at his prey.

"We need to have a little chat, Alynia Gilbert."

"I—"

My feet left the floor, or should I say barely brushed it. The crowd moved as he pushed through, partially carrying me.

"Elijah, please," I tried. "My friends—"

"Silence, please."

I caught the image of a door from the corner of my eye. "Don't do this."

I could scream. The thought briefly flickered through my mind, and just as quickly his threat from earlier followed suit. He'd kill whomever got in his way, and we both knew it.

The door opened, and he pushed me inside. The scents of dust, of old wood and stone filled my senses for a brief moment before we moved again. Up, I think. Up several flights of stares in the time it took to blink twice. Disorientation turned my senses into a tilt-a-whirl when my feet finally connected with something solid again. Years had passed since I'd experienced vampire travel, and I wasn't used to it anymore.

The music was muted from here, a distant pulsing that made the wood beneath my shoes vibrate slightly. Stars glittered above us, the heat of a Spring Louisiana night wrapping me in a humid blanket.

It took me a minute to realize we stood on a third story balcony overlooking a side alley of the club. Light from the stars, from the activities of the main street just a few yards to the right, was our only illumination. We were alone, or alone as one could get in the French Quarter.

It took me a moment to realize he wasn't holding onto me anymore, either. He stood to one side of the little platform, hands in his pants pockets, draped in shadows. Those eyes continued to study me, however. I could feel them on me as surely as I felt his power wash across my flesh. He wasn't pretending anymore, hiding what he was. He didn't have to, I thought bitterly. Not in this place where no one could see.

"I'm sorry," I said, wrapping my arms around myself, cold despite the heat.

"For?"

"That kiss. I panicked, and I should have asked first. It was the only way Ellis would believe I was fine. So please accept my apologies."

The shadows tipped their head to the side. "I thought it an enjoyable experience."

Was that heat touching my cheeks? Was I… shit, I was blushing. Of all the times to actually feel self-conscious! "No doubt. If I'm going to be honest here, I'll be the first to say that kiss is going to haunt me for a really long time. But that's not what I meant," I took a deep breath. "Look, I'd be horribly offended if someone laid one on me like that, regardless of the reason. So please, believe me when I say I'm sorry."

He was silent a long moment, and I couldn't tell what he was thinking. "Apology accepted."

I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding. "Great. So, uh, can I leave now? My friends—"

"Are fine, for now."

"And let me guess, the 'for now' depends on what I do next?"

"Partially."

"Partially," I echoed, suddenly tired. I rubbed my eyes. "I thought I was free, Elijah. You told me to leave Mystic Falls and live my life. I did that. I did as you asked. So why are you following me?"

"If you are referring to my presence in New Orleans, the answer is I wasn't," he stepped over to the wrought-iron railing, gazing at the distant street. "We've already established that I was following you today. I want to know why you are here."

My first thought was a cheeky response of 'duh, because you kidnapped me, you asshat,' but I wisely kept that one to myself. "Vacation," I said honestly. "A last trip with my friends before we graduate college and go our separate ways."

"You claim that your presence here, then, has nothing to do with my brother."

Claim? What? I blinked, and blinked again. It wasn't a question. Which was a good thing and a bad thing. Because I had no idea what he was talking about, and apparently he was looking for a specific answer. Jesus, the set of his shoulders, the distance in his tone, also let me know he'd hurt me to get that answer. And he wouldn't feel bad about it, either.

"No offense, but I don't want anything to do with Niklaus ever again and the feeling is beyond mutual," I continued. "He made that pretty clear to me, too."

He nodded, again taking a moment of silence to mull that one over. "I need to hear the words from you, Alynia. I need you to tell me your presence here is purely coincidental with mine."

That sent a chill up my spine. Concern and… fear… peppered his words with an undertone I'd only ever heard it once before, when—

Nope, better not to think about that right this moment.

"Elijah," I stepped over to him, placing a hand very lightly on his shoulder. "What's wrong? What's happened?"

"I need to hear the words, Alynia."

So much strain in that voice, buried beneath centuries of control. I heard it, felt it like shards of glass embedded in his words.

"You're scared," I blurted, shocked.

It was the wrong thing to say, and I found my back smacking into the rough brick of the wall. The wind rushed out of my lungs, my eyes snapped shut, and I would have fallen forward if not for the other brick wall (namely his chest) pressing me upright. One hand was back in my hair, only this time it wasn't kind. This time he was angling for a nice compulsion stare, and I couldn't let that happen. Not again.

Not ever.

God, it had taken years to get over the psychological damage of that first time.

Pain spiraled up my spine as his hand started that downward pull, the one from our first meeting. The one that would send so much agony through me if I didn't capitulate. Eventually my eyes would pop open and he'd have me.

"Alynia—"

"I swear to you on my very soul that I'm not here for Niklaus. I'm not here for anything even remotely connected to your family!" I whisper-screamed, slapping at his chest. "Oh God, Elijah, please let go. You're hurting me."

The hand in my hair vanished, but he stood his ground. "My apologies," he said, arms bracing on either side of me, the tone of his words anything but sorry. "Understand that I find it very troubling when a long lost friend from Mystic Falls happens to be here at this exact time."

"Would it help if I told you that you sound insane right now?" I managed out through stiff lips. "Elijah, I literally have no idea what you're talking about."

Another moment of silence, and I realized what he was doing. He was listening to my heartbeat, trying to gage if I was lying. I tried not to gape at him. Stars in heaven, just what the hell was going on here? What in the known universe could scare an Original?

"Leave," he said at length. "Tonight. You need to leave before Niklaus learns of your presence."

Uh, did that mean he finally believed I was telling the truth? "Gladly," I answered. "My friends and I—"

"Come up with any excuse you like for your friends. I need you to leave, Alynia. Niklaus will not stop to question you as I have. He'll kill you on sight."

My eyes widened of their own accord. "Why? We had an agreement, him and I. The curse was broken. There's no further need to hurt me or my family. We're free. You said so, yourself."

"Things have changed in that regard, but only if you remain in this city."

"Done and done. I'll do as you ask," I held up a hand in the minuscule space between us, which was pretty much the equivalent of placing my palm just over his heart. My intent was to forestall his next set of words until I could finish a sentence. He seemed to get the hint. "My friends ran off with your friend, Marcel. Remember him? I need them back and I'll leave."

His lips compressed in a small frown. "That may not be possible."

"Then no dice," I glanced up into his eyes, letting him know how serious I was. How afraid and determined all at once. "Family doesn't end with blood, Elijah. They're my family. I can't walk away from them."

Something like a hint of a smile flirted across his lips, though this one was tinged with bittersweet memories. "We're negotiating now?"

"I guess so."

"You don't have anything I want. My warning is simply that—a warning. We worked well together in Mystic Falls, and for that I owed you the courtesy of this warning. You will die if you do not leave now. Your friends have chosen their fate. Chose yours now, Alynia Gilbert."

I stared into his eyes, saw the truth staring back. He'd kill me, I realized. He'd kill me if only to spare me a worse fate. At his hands it would be quick, painless. At Niklaus's? The torture could go on for years. Especially if he thought I was tied somehow to whatever the hell had drawn he and his brother to New Orleans. It was almost enough to make me fling myself from the balcony and just end it. Maybe that was why he still stood in my way, trapped me in a cage of his body.

Or maybe he just knew me well enough to know I'd do something crazy if not controlled. Like, say, leaping in front of an angry Original to save my sister.

Or doing the insane thing to save those I thought of as sisters?

I did have something he wanted—if I had the courage to go through with it.

"I do have something you want," My voice quaked and cracked with the words. I tilted my head back and to the side, exposing the long line of my throat. Inviting him. "Magic blood, given freely. You've tasted it before. You know what it can do. And I think… I think you need it. Which is why you didn't just compel me to leave right there on the dance floor. You needed to know if you could trust me. And you gave me an out if I couldn't trust you. You can, Elijah, as long as it takes to get Dani and Lexi back. Then we'll leave, just like you want."

"You and your sister always had a way of reading me," He leaned in, inhaling deeply, like someone preparing to sample a particularly expensive wine. "I'm not sure if I'm pleased by that. They mean that much to you, these friends of yours?"

"Yes, and more. They're my family. Help me, and I'll give you my blood for as long as I'm in New Orleans. My word on it."

His fingers gripped my chin, lowering my face to look into his eyes again. "You understand I cannot protect you if Niklaus finds you. That part of the deal I can't make right now."

"If we work together again, maybe he won't find out."

He considered it another long moment, his breath warm against my throat as he simply breathed. "This is dangerous, Alynia. Are you certain?"

No. Not even remotely certain! "Yes," the word was barely breathed.

"Then we have a deal."

I didn't have time to close my eyes before he tilted my head back again and his fangs struck true.


	3. Chapter 3

God, the pain.

It lifted me up on to the tips of my toes, hands latching onto the lapels of his jacket. Part of my mind, the part not screaming in abject terror at what I was allowing to happen, realized that rumpling his suit wasn't the brightest of ideas. He was a fussy vampire, if such a thing were to exist, and took extreme offense to any manhandling of his clothing or person. But the rest of my mind didn't give a flip. The rest of my mind was currently screaming at the top of its little lungs, flailing around in mad panic at the feeling—the feeling!—of his fangs underneath my skin. Jesus, I felt it all, felt the hard heat tunneling through my neck to reach that tender pulsing artery. His bite sank in deep and true, as if we had rehearsed the whole thing a million times. Same spot, same pain, and same reaction.

I swore my blood burst into his mouth like the first pop of juice from a ripe apple.

No matter how I tried to steel myself against what was coming, the wave of pleasure swept over me and stole all sense of reality. It always hurt until he took the first pull on my vein, and then the pleasure overtook the terror, leaving me very much helpless in his arms.

It didn't negate the terror ricocheting around my brain, however. I just couldn't react to it. And later—if I survived the night—I'd curl up on the floor with a pillow between my teeth and scream and scream and scream. Because most sane minds can't reconcile the violation of pleasure and horror all in one neat little bundle. Call it a delayed reaction. Call it whatever you wanted.

I called it the bacon bits on this suck-salad I was being served. Every pun intended.

One arm found its customary place around my waist, pulling me in tight against him. The other was tender by contrast, warm fingers tilting my head just so, just right for unobstructed access to what he'd just purchased. My eyes slammed shut of their own accord, and it was everything I could do not to push him away. Or try to. Not that I'd succeed, mind you. He'd drain me dry before I'd so much as put an inch of space between us.

Because this was a test, too. Somehow, I knew that. A test to keep my word, to prove I was trustworthy, that I would follow through on my promises.

He leaned back after the third swallow, after what felt like forever. My gasp of relief couldn't be contained. It was almost over. Dear god, it was all almost over. So why couldn't I let go of his jacket? I didn't have the courage to ask that, not even of myself.

It took me several attempts to find my voice. "E-Elijah," I managed out. "A-a-are you o-okay?"

He didn't respond right away, and he didn't let go of me, either. Both hands were right where they had been, and would have been seen as tender and loving if this were happening to anyone but us.

"Quite," he said at length, eyes closed. "Are you?"

"No," I answered honestly. "I just let an Original vampire bite me. I think that qualifies me for something far left of the 'okay' line."

That brought a hint of a chuckle from him, the hand on the back of my neck sliding gently around to the front of my throat. His thumb brushed ever so softly at the bite marks, back and forth. Fresh blood trickled from the wound in response, warm droplets cascading down the front of my blouse. Swallowing wasn't the best move, either, the action forcing freshly punctured muscles to contract, which in turn caused blood to flow.

I leaned my head back, felt the brick wall behind my head, trying to pull away from that finger and the way he was fiddling with my blood. Like it was some sort of after sex caress.

"A-a-are you finished w-with me?"

That question seemed to catch him off guard, and I was treated to the rare sight of a rather puzzled looking Elijah. His eyes opened slowly, and he blinked several times. The center of them, where the pupil should have been, was a dark crimson color. Magic blood in his veins-my blood in his veins-left it's distinct mark. I didn't know what he saw through the filter of my blood, but whatever it was, it wasn't pleasing.

Maybe he was remembering the first time he'd fed from me, and the circumstances around it? I shuddered, and didn't care if he felt it or not. Best not to travel down that particular memory lane unless we had the need.

He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "For now."

Great. For now. What a lovely open-ended freaking statement. I could only hope that 'for now' was some New Orleans code phrase for 'I'll find your friends and you'll get out of the city before dawn.'

He stepped back, the much-needed space opening between us. Likewise, I uncurled my fingers from his collar, and slapped both over the side of my neck. The blood flow was slowing, but not fast enough for my liking. It pumped between my fingers, and I put as much pressure on it as I could. So I missed it when he pushed back the sleeve over one wrist and brought it to his mouth. My only indication of what was coming next was the sound of his fangs cutting into his own flesh. And then it was my turn to drink.

"No," I went to shake my head, and thought better of it. "No, I don't want this."

"You say that as if you have a choice, Alynia. You gave up that freedom when you made the deal."

"I don't recall drinking from you as expressly spoken in our agreement."

That smile that wasn't a smile touched his lips. "As long as you are in New Orleans, your blood is mine to take. Exactly how is that going to work if I allow you to bleed out here on this balcony?" He extended his wrist towards me again. "Now drink. Refusal will be met with you drinking anyway and my mood towards you shifting towards slightly less than pleased."

Translation: If I didn't drink, things were going to go much worse for me during my stay.

I closed my eyes. "I hate this part."

"I know. I remember."

He pressed his wrist to my mouth, and god help me, I did as he asked.

* * *

"'Nia? Hey! You okay?"

Needless to say, I didn't expect to find myself back down stairs at the bar, my head pillowed in my arms. Live jazz continued to rain down on us, the band in full swing and the room packed with warm, screaming bodies. It was a miracle that I'd found a seat at a table, nevertheless the ability to close my eyes and tune out what had to be the loudest trumpet-player in the history of music. Beside me, I heard Ellis laugh. Well, felt it more than heard it. That gentle tremble of her hand as it rested against my arm let me know what was happening.

"Jesus, that had to be the best sex of your life," she screamed in my ear.

That brought me up straight, so swiftly I almost head-butted her on the nose. Thankfully, she hadn't yet drank enough to kill a small yak, so her reflexes were as sharp as ever. She dodged, but the grin splitting her face was all for me.

"I didn't have sex with that man," I nearly shouted.

Ellis's eyes traveled from the top of my head to the tips of my toes, the look on her face saying she believed me as much as I believed I was getting out of New Orleans in one piece. Which was to say, I wasn't. And she didn't.

"Sure you didn't," she winked. "That's why you came down those stairs on his arm, and he put you here at this table, after laying a kiss on you so hot it received a standing ovation from everyone nearby."

If I had enough blood left in my system to blush, my face would have caught fire. "He… Jesus."

For once, my highly observant friend missed the look of confused and muted fear on my face. "Like I said, that must have been some amazing sex. He set you down, winked at me, and told me to keep an eye on you. He'd be back after finding Lexi and Dani. So spill already. Tell me what it's like sleeping with the famed Elijah of the Letter. I always knew you'd end up with him. It's so 'The Notebook,' you know? Letters written from a torrid affair in the past, reuniting in a strange city years later. So romantic."

"Uh, except in 'The Notebook' the main character wasn't a sixteen year old girl pursued by a twenty-something year old man who only thought of her as a child."

Ellis gave me the once-over again. "You sure as hell aren't sixteen anymore, a fact I think he noticed the moment he saw you again. And he doesn't look a day over the twenty-something you claim he was at the time. Hey, there's nothing wrong with dating a man with ten or so years more experience than you have. It must account for the wild sex."

"For the last time, we didn't have sex!"

"Okay, then it was a seriously heavy make-out session. Don't deny it," her eyes glittered with amusement. "The facts speak for themselves. Number one, your hair is mussed beyond recognition. Number 2, your make-up matches your hair. And last, but not least, his jacket looked like a certain pair of fingers rumpled the collar something fierce. Oh, and the bonus fact being that only you wear that shade of lipstick. Which was suspiciously absent from your lips but somehow present all over his wrist. Now, you tell me what this adds up to, my friend."

Really? Freaking really?! I was half a quart low on blood and probably whiter than a sheet of paper, but the thing she picked up on was the lipstick on his WRIST? How the hell had she even seen that?

"He carried you," Ellis continued, that dopey romantic smile on her mouth I normally found endearing now utterly creepy. "Seriously, he did. Not completely in his arms because that would have been weird. But the arm around your waist, and his other hand on your shoulder. Such a gentleman, that one. And you were smiling at him like a well-sated sex machine. He kept touching your cheek like he didn't want you to look away from him, and that's when I noticed the lipstick."

Of course he did. I tried to replay what happened on that balcony. There was the deal, the… sealing of the deal by bite instead of kiss, and then I drank from him and… and…

And I stared up into his eyes, and promptly fell into them. Words bounced around my fuzzy little brain like pinballs on crack, burning hot words like thoughts made into branding irons. His words, his will, reinforced by his blood in my system. Jesus, how had I forgotten that for some reason his blood in me made it so much easier to compel me? Drawbacks of the magic blood, I supposed. When ours blended like that, the impossible tended to become the possible real quick-like.

I'd smiled at him, saw him smile back. And suddenly felt so tired and happy and sated and… and… God, like we'd just had dirty hot sex right there on the balcony. I'd been giddy with it, and aching all over with the sweet pain of, well, dirty hot sex against a brick wall. Even now I felt a shudder run through me, an echo of what he'd compelled me to think had happened. My traitorous body got with the program, triggering an endorphin release that was all shades of delicious. A soft moan left my lips, and Ellis cackled so loudly I heard it over the music.

"Liar," she grinned, slapping me playfully on the shoulder. "Look, it's okay if you slept with him. I'd have done the same. You know, got it out of your system? It's not like you're going to see him again. We've graduated! We're going to have great careers that don't exist in this city, and live our lives to the fullest. I mean, you threw the letter over the bridge, right? The past is the past. It's over. Sleeping with him just tied the bow on the box that is your past. And after we leave here in a few days, you'll never have to think of him again. Treat it like Vegas. What happens here, stays here. Always and forever."

I jerked at that. "What did you just say?"

She blinked in surprise. "What? What happens here, stays here."

"No, after that."

"Oh, the 'always and forever' bit?" the sly grin returned to her lips. "It was something he said to you before he left to retrieve Lexi and Dani. He'd be there for you 'always and forever.' I thought it had a nice sound to it, so I'm borrowing it."

I climbed to my feet quicker than I should have, and the room tilted perilously for a moment. "We're leaving."

Ellis's eyes widened in alarm. "We can't. Dani and Lexi are going to meet us here. Calm down, 'Nia. What's wrong?"

Everything. Everything was wrong. I shouldn't have made that deal. I should have run the moment he showed up behind me. I should have let him die back in Mystic Falls. I should have done a lot of things differently.

"We have to leave," I nearly pleaded. "This place isn't safe."

Ellis shook her head slowly. "No, I think I'm going to stay right here."

As if for emphasis, she locked her hands around the rim of the table and stared at me. Stared with slightly confused eyes, as if she wasn't really sure why she was grabbing the table at all. A stare I could readily identify with, and simultaneously felt my heart sink.

"He told you to stay here, didn't he," It wasn't a question. And I already knew what she was going to say next.

"Yes. It's best if we stay here and wait for him to come back with our friends. It's part of the deal."

Stars, she'd said that so… dispassionately, as if parroting the words of another. As if she'd been compelled.

"Always and forever," I echoed dully, bitterly. Sinking back into my seat. "Let me guess, you won't let go of that table until I promise not to leave the bar."

"Something like that."

I closed my eyes, rubbing my hands over my face until the urge to scream settled back into my chest instead of trying to punch its way past my teeth. "I'm so sorry, Ellis. I'm sorry I got you involved in this whole mess. And I promise not to leave the bar until he comes back."

Tension exited her frame on a whoosh of breath, her shoulders sagging from the relief. I closed my eyes tightly against a fresh wave of tears. She literally would have held onto that table until she died, muscles contracting against her will, locking onto the polished wood like vice grips. Until I gave in and did what he wanted, or until she shredded her own muscles, or broken her own bones, to fulfill the false desires he'd slammed into her soul. Some part of me hoped and begged that this really was for our protection, that the best thing for us was really to sit there and wait for him. That the honorable man I'd known in Mystic Falls was the same man in which I'd just made that deal.

That he wasn't acting more like Niklaus than himself.

But that was a tough pill to swallow given what I'd just experienced. Touchy, paranoid, and violent didn't being to describe what was happening to him, and to me. Something had changed, something that frightened him and activated every vampiric instinct in his undead frame. No, not just vampiric, I realized. Every instinct that made him who he was, that defined the character of one Elijah Mikaelson.

Glancing up at Ellis, at the tiny beads of sweat on her brow just beginning to dissipate from the exertion of blackmailing that promise out of me, I knew I was wrong. This wasn't paranoia or violence or a shade of Niklaus, or even greed to keep my blood where he could snack on it any time he wished. This was something far worse, and something that let the tears finally escape my control.

This wasn't Elijah at his most touchy or erratic. This was him doing what he did best.

Protecting.

Gathering in and protecting those he cherished and needed from something he feared and hated.

"Always and forever," I whispered.

"Now why am I not surprised to find you here, saying words that clearly don't belong to you?"

There was no time to react to that voice, no time to really scream or cry or beg or … or anything. Not that any of those actions would save me. Not with him. So I did the only thing I could do. I smiled, the emotion never reaching my eyes.

"Hello, Niklaus. Please don't kill my friend."


	4. Chapter 4

_Dear Diary,_

 _He has us! God, he has ME. _

_I would pray for mercy, but whomever or whatever is listening, has long forgotten me..._

* * *

The nightmare that had haunted my life ever since he'd first appeared in Mystic Falls gracefully slipped one long leg over the back of the chair, sliding easily into it with a smile made of pure sin. Blue-green eyes somehow burned cold as he appraised the situation, taking in Ellis's pained expression, the white-knuckled grip with which she held onto the table. And, of course, the stark terror ricocheting across my eyes.

"Don't kill your friends?" he echoed, turning the greatest request of my life into a lackadaisical question. "Now why on earth would I want to honor that request? Have you asked them if they want their lives, now what you've brought them into our business?"

Panic gripped me, pure and unadulterated adrenaline rushing in to fill the void left by Elijah's feeding. I reached out to him before I knew what I was doing, determined to grasp his shoulder, to make him look at me and acknowledge my plea. It was stupid, and I knew it. And I was rewarded by his hand wrapping around my wrist with demon-like rapidity before I so much as touched him. There was no semblance of friendship in his eyes, no acknowledgment of how strong he was versus how weak I was. That wasn't entirely true. He knew how strong he was compared to me. The difference between himself and Elijah was that he didn't care about that difference.

He squeezed until I fell out of the chair on my knees beside him, tears pouring down my face, teeth sinking into my bottom lip to keep from crying out. Ellis sobbed aloud, hands still locked around that table. I understood. It was either hold onto it or run screaming from the room, and Elijah's compulsion made the latter all but impossible. She was well and truly trapped, even worse than I was.

If that was even possible.

"Do not touch me," he said just as casually as before. "Do not ever assume you have that privilege without my expressed permission. Am I understood?"

I nodded so hard I was certain my head was going to fly off my shoulders. He let go, flinging my arm away from him as if it was trash. I tumbled back against my chair, clinging to it with my good arm, my heart beating so hard I thought it was going to fly out of my mouth. I was too frightened, too empty of myself after Elijah's bite, to have tighter control on myself.

"I'm not here for you," I blurted, nearly hyperventilating between each word. "Please, Niklaus, I explained this all to Elijah. If you would—"

"Yes, I smell my brother all over you, little Alynia. I can practically see his bite on your throat. I sincerely hope your behavior a moment ago wasn't from something as simple or misguided as believing his marking of you would stay my hand. I'll do with you as I see fit."

I shook my head, clambering up on the seat. Grateful for the first time for all the music and dancing and no one paying attention to the crowded little table in the corner and the death that stalked it. If I'd called Elijah the Devil, then Klaus was the Devil's Due, the Devil in the Details, and all the things that gave the Devil his power. It whispered in the smirk across those full lips, my death dancing merrily in those blue-green orbs. He leaned back in his seat, putting one booted foot up on the table. Ellis stared at it like she'd never seen shoes before. Terrified. Horrified. Unable to move.

"No, he was quite clear about that," I scrubbed my good hand across my face, cradling the wounded one to my chest. "He said you'd kill me if you found me."

"Well, given how I'm in a generous mood this evening, you have until I grow bored to explain your presence in New Orleans to me. If I happen to grow bored," his eyes moved across Ellis's too pale face, lingering on the rapid pulse in her throat. "I'm sure I can find ways to motivate to be more entertaining."

"Please—"

He made a tisking sound. "'Please' is a boring way to start, little Alynia. Tick-tock. Tick-tock."

"She doesn't have anything to do with this. It's me—"

"I know it's you. I know Elijah seems to think you have value," those eyes remained focused on Ellis's throat. "Just as I know you always seem to forget that I don't care a wit about that."

"We're here on vacation! It's a coincidence, I swear to you. Please. PLEASE!"

My hand hovered in the air, wanting to grab him and shake him. No, wanting to push him away from us, to grab Ellis and run away screaming. To go back to the conversation with Elijah and let him spirit me off to parts unknown. Ellis wouldn't have been in the middle of this. My friends would be safe. But it was too late to go back, and I was too weak to do anything but beg.

Or act.

"If you move towards her, I'll kill her before you blink," he said as if reading my mind.

He finally glanced at me, and I saw the truth in his eyes. God, he'd do it. Just because he said he would, or just because he was bored. Or just because.

He'd take a life just… because.

I couldn't move. I couldn't not move. I couldn't speak, and yet I had to. God, he was going to kill Ellis!

"Kill me," I blurted, flinging my uninjured wrist out on to the table, careful not to touch him. "It's what you want to do, so do it. Kill me. Take my life instead of hers. You, like Elijah, fed on me before in Mystic Falls. You know what my blood is like. Take it all. It'll fill you better than four people's worth. It's better and you know it."

"If I kill you, I don't get to hear your excuse as to why you're following me. Plus," he held up a finger to forestall my words. "I'll never learn who sent you. Not to mention earning my older brother's wrath."

"I'm not following you!" I screeched, slamming my hand on the table in frustration, bowing my head against a fresh wave of tears. "Elijah doesn't care about me."

He pursed his lips, a show of mock disappointment. "Lying to me now? That has a cost all it's own. If Elijah didn't care about you, why are you still alive? Why are you trapped in this bar with your little friend here?" The foot on the table vanished in a blink, slipping beneath Ellis's chair and sliding it right up against his before I could draw my next breath. "Where did he go, and why did he ask you to wait for him here?"

He slipped an arm around Ellis's shoulders, tucking her in tight against him. Tears streamed freely down her cheeks, her empty hands clutching furtively at the air, trying to follow Elijah's command even though Klaus prevented it. Damn near going catatonic with fear and confusion and every emotion inbetween.

"No," I sobbed, blubbered, pleaded. "Please, don't. Oh, God, NiKlaus, please. Please! Please, please, please, please…"

One finger touched the trail of tears on her cheek, sliding down the salty manifestation of her horror until it touched right beneath her chin. Slowly, ever so slowly, he forced her head back and to the side. Veins near his eyes pulsed and thickened, whatever darkness existing in his soul due to his vampiric nature manifesting in a blackness that filled his eyes. All except his iris. Those glowed brightly against the abyss, his werewolf side—the thing that made him the original vampire/werewolf hybrid—matching the power of his undeath state.

And fangs-sharp, hard, glistening fangs-extended to curl over that full lower lip.

I threw myself towards him again before I could stop myself, pulling up just shy of touching him. Eyes riveted on the hand that had worked its way up the back of her neck, clutching the delicate bones of her throat with almost gentle ease. And I knew if I got so much as an inch closer to him, she'd die before I blinked.

"He went to save my friends from someone named Marcel!" I wailed, hand hovering and shaking above the table, terrified to my core. "I swear to you, Niklaus, that's where he went. He didn't tell me where, just something about a party. Something about it being dangerous for them, and as part of our deal, he's going to save them."

Niklaus tipped his head to the side, resting his cheek on the crown of Ellis's head. "Deal?"

"He could have my blood, as long as I was in New Orleans, in exchange for retrieving my two friends from Marcel's party—safely, I mean."

"And then?"

"And then we leave town. That was the deal. We leave and never come back, and for that he got my blood for the night."

The knife-edged smile returned, and he glanced down at Ellis. "Hear that, love? My brother honestly believes little Alynia was here by coincidence, and in his usual honorable and pathetic way, has attempted to ensure I never learn of her presence. She's managed to convince our noble Elijah that her presence here has nothing to do with the witches or Hayley. I'm not so convinced, however. But, I know a way I could be."

"NIKLAUS!"

It couldn't have been more perfectly timed. He waited until the music hit its highest, most frantic notes, my scream lost beneath the trumpet blasts and drumbeats. Ellis never knew it was coming, never understood the pain from his bite. Not when he drank so quickly, pulling her close so that it looked like he was making out with her instead of committing murder. I launched myself at him furtively, knowing he could drain her dry in a second. He was ready, wrapping an arm around my waist and yanking me into his lap. I sprawled against him, appearing for all the world like a drunk girl trying to turn a private moment into a threesome.

"NO!" I screamed into his shoulder. "No! Don't! Not Ellis, please, not Ellis! Kill me instead. PLEASE!"

Niklaus pulled back, eyes closed, face a mask of ecstasy. Tongue slipping against those lips, taking in the last drops of my friend's blood. I reached for Ellis, and he let me. So fucking content in his ability to take both our lives before we could do anything in response. Ellis's head lolled on her neck like that of a broken doll, her face utterly pale, blue-tinged lips slack and unresponsive. But those eyelids fluttered faintly. Very faintly, like the last twitch of a butterfly's wings just pinned behind glass.

"She's dying," I whispered, hands shaking, voice thick with sorrow. "You've killed her."

"Not dead yet," he replied, a hand resting on the small of my back. "As we previously agreed, her life is in your hands."

"I never agreed to this!"

"Not in so many words," he shrugged, the smirk returning. "I did warn you I'd motivate you to tell the truth. I could save her, but why would I want to do that?"

His eyes stared hard into mine, the vice-like arm around my waist just as hard, and just as much a mockery of Elijah's firm but gentle hold. The obvious request floated in the air between us. _Give me something I want, and I'll give you something you want._

"I told you everything," I hung my head, hands floating helplessly across Ellis's arms, voice as hollow as my heart. "Elijah followed me here. He confronted me the same as you. We made our deal. That's all. Please, save her. I'll give you everything. Anything. Don't let my friend die."

"And I followed Elijah here, wondering just what my brother was up to in this side of the quarter. Tell me, do you know any of the witches in this town?"

I shook my head. "No. The only witch I know is Bonnie, and we're estranged now. I left Mystic Falls. You know that. I left it all behind."

"And yet here you are."

"Here I am," I echoed dully. Ellis's eyelids were no longer fluttering, her chest no longer moving up and down with the desire to breathe. "Drawn back into this nightmare, trapped in hell."

"Why here? Why did you come to New Orleans?"

I couldn't tear my eyes away from her still features, from the face that had laughed and shined and smiled not less than an hour ago. Now still as the grave.

He leaned forward, lips brushing my ear with each word. "Tick-tock, little Alynia. Answer me before it's too late."

"It was Lexi's idea," I closed my eyes. "She thought it was a great place. Neverland, she called it. A place to be a child one last time, a college kid, before we were forced to become adults with real jobs."

"What is Lexi's last name?"

I blinked at that, staring up into his eyes again with a lackluster stare. Wondering just what he was driving at. Wondering if I even cared. "Deveroux."

Those eyes blazed as he brought his wrist to his lips and bit hard.

* * *

We left Ellis unconscious on the table, her breath growing stronger with each passing minute. He'd given her enough of his blood to survive with medical attention, guaranteeing she'd be right where he could find her if he needed her again. And I? I'd become Niklaus's unwilling plus one to Marcel's party. Apparently Marcel held these 'parties' all the time, or so my "date" informed me while grabbing my arm and pulling me out of the bar. Humans were lured to a 'real New Orleans party,' where they drank their fill and danced. Until Marcel the magical midnight hour struck, and the humans found themselves on the other side of the cup—quite literally. They became the drinks while the vampires had their fill and danced the night away.

Normally, the humans survived the encounter. Their memories wiped away and a touch of the vamp-juice given to heal their bite wounds. They went back to their cheesy hotel rooms with smiles on their lips, no worse for wear than if they'd spent the night drinking to drown. It was amazing how blood loss held similar side effects to hangovers.

Was it wrong that I actually agreed with that plan? That the vampires could feed without killing. That, under what passed as normal circumstances (and by normal, I had to clarify as Original-free), Lexi and Dani would have woken in our hotel room the next morning with that dopey smile on their pale, hung-over faces. Ellis wouldn't have known the difference between blood loss and hangover. Me? I… I don't know if I would have noticed, either.

But once again my involvement with the Original family had turned a survivable situation into the worst danger of our lives.

Maybe it was foolish to believe I'd ever escape this, that I'd wake up one day in a world where vampires and werewolves took no notice of me. The way Niklaus strode beside me, his arm loosely about my waist, certainly lead credence to that belief. For one that didn't believe in destiny, I was surely having trouble escaping mine. He knew where he was going, his footsteps sure and steady as he looped me across Chartres Street and up yet another street. Our destination, Royal Street.

Royal Street. God, the irony of the name wasn't lost on me, nor the building that was our destination.

The house was a massive thing, three stories of old school privately owned New Orleans architecture on a prime corner lot. It was hard to believe the self-styled ruler of the Quarter did his business in a building smashed up against hotels and other places that teamed with humans day in and day out. But there it was, and there we were, standing there to gaze up at the mouth of hell.

Iron-worked balconies on every floor dripped with people and vampires, mingled so tightly that it was hard even for me to tell one from the other. Music blasted a steady _thump-thump_ of modern dance beats. People laughed and drank and made out on those balconies with wild abandon, spilling their drinks down upon the people below them. No one seemed to notice. No one cared to notice. Not when that much sex and alcohol filled the air, nearly choking out the music.

"No," I gasped, staring at the horror before me. "I don't want to go in there."

Niklaus glanced over at me. "Afraid, are we?"

"Wouldn't you be?" I countered breathlessly. "I… I can't even tell where the humans end and the vampires begin."

Those blue-green eyes studied me a long moment, measuring me on a scale only visible to his mind. "Well, let us hope that none of the humans in that building end and begin again as vampires this evening. I doubt the amount of tourist pouring into the city could sustain all those newly turned."

"I—"

I didn't get to finish that thought, and I didn't get a choice in entering the building. The arm around my waist left me with two choices: move with him, or be literally cut in half. Because he wasn't stopping or slowing, and the good money lay on the odds that my mortal spine would snap before his supernatural strength gave way.

"Now we find out," He said, pushing through the courtyard fence.

"Find out what?"

"If you really are telling the truth, and if he is, too."

"He? He who?"

"Quiet now, love. Let the adults do the talking."

We made it barely through the outer ring of dancers before I saw him. Marcel, the man at the bar that Dani wanted to have. It had to be Marcel. His age beat against my skin, the power in his blood like icy needles pressing into my pores. Second generation vampire, if I had to classify him. That's why he shone like a beacon at the bar. He had to be a direct siring from Elijah or Rebekah or Niklaus. Power like that just didn't occur otherwise. God, if he'd approached me instead of Lexi or Dani, I would have run screaming from the bar. Because I could feel what he was, and it was like feeling Death smiling down at you.

That gorgeous smile was on his lips, his black eyes glittering with true joy at our appearance. Well, I should say at Niklaus's appearance. Niklaus let go of my waist, and I did the only thing I could do. I slumped against the wall, arms wrapped around myself in an attempt to hide my injured wrist. The moment my back hit the bricks, another vampire was right next to me. Not as powerful as Marcel, but close. His hand touched my elbow, a bare two fingers. But it was enough to send a signal of ownership to anyone watching, and his eyes stayed glued to Niklaus's back. As if he didn't trust the man.

It made me like him a tiny bit. And hate him at the same time, because that hand wasn't protective, it was like holding onto an insurance policy. After all, I came in with Evil Incarnate. I must have some worth to him, right?

"Hey, my man," Marcel began, clapping a hand on Niklaus's shoulder. "Where'd you run off to? Oh, someone's put you in a mood," His eyes flicked my way, saw his man's hand on my arm, and went right back to Niklaus. "What can I do?"

"What you can do is tell me what this thing is you have with the witches."

Marcel huffed out a bit of laugh, and the sound wasn't exactly happy. "You know I owe you everything that I've got, but I'm afraid I have to draw the line on this one. This is my business. I control the witches in my town. Let's just leave it at that."

Niklaus didn't like that answer, at least not as much as his posture showed. The man beside me switched from two fingers to a full grip on my elbow. I bit my lower lip, trying not to wince too much.

"Your town," Niklaus replied, voice dangerous low.

"Damn straight."

It was Niklaus's turn to laugh. "That's funny, because when I left a hundred years ago, you were just a pathetic little scrapper still trembling from the lashes of the whips of those that would keep you down and now look at you," He raised his voice, and the music just died. "Master of your domain. Prince of the city. I'd like to know how."

It wasn't a question. Everyone else thought so, too, and suddenly I could pick out the vampires from the humans. And it didn't have to do with any supernatural gift. The humans looked confused and worried. The vampires maneuvered through the humans to better positions to attack, if their boss gave the command.

All except one vampire. He stood on the third floor balcony, staring down into the courtyard. His suit was unmistakable. The woman looped on either arm equally unmistakable. Elijah had kept his word like always, and Lexi and Dani were in his care, their blank expressions letting me know they were compelled to forget everything almost before they heard it.

He would have gotten them out safely. Dammit, if only he'd been a minute or two faster…

Now he stood and watched like the rest of us. Only his eyes moved between me, his brother, and the hand on my elbow.

"Why?" Marcel had the nerve to taunt. "Jealous?"

Elijah dropped Dani and Lexi's arms, took the three steps forward to stand in the light, his hands resting loosely on the iron railing. Ready, was more the word. His hands at the ready to act. Just what that action was, was anyone's guess.

"Hey, man, I get it," Marcel went on. "Three hundred years ago you helped build a backwater penal colony into something. You started it, but then you left. Actually, you ran from it. I saw it through. Look around. Vampires rule this city now. I got rid of the werewolves. I even found a way to shut down the witches. The blood never stops flowing and the party never ends. You want to pass on through, you want to stay a while, great. What's mine is yours, but it is mine. My home, my family, my rules."

"And if someone breaks those rules?" Niklaus asked, voice soft and still belting across the crowded courtyard.

"They die," Marcel said the same way. "Mercy is for the weak. You taught me that, too. And I'm not the prince of the Quarter, friend. I'm the KING! Show me some respect."

God, no. Oh, god, this was going to get bad. So very bad.

I might have said that out loud, whispered it in sincere dread. There were so many humans here, so many innocents to die for just witnessing this showdown. The man beside me yanked me next to him, squeezing to emphasize the need for silence. It was the wrong move. Because Niklaus heard my gasp, head turning my way, assessing my situation just as quickly as Elijah had, and then gazing across the assembled crowd.

And then he moved. The man at my side was his target, pulling him free of me and biting deep into the guy's throat. Paralyzing pain replaced the power in him, wracking his entire body as the werewolf venom in Klaus's bite—fatal to all vampires—pumped into his system. The man convulsed once and fell to the ground before I'd fully regained my footing. Niklaus let him, and I knelt down beside my would-be captor, hands hovering over his trembling form. Mine trembling just as badly.

"Your friend will be dead by the weekend," Niklaus continued, as if discussing a broken piece of china and not a life. "Which means I've broken one of your rules. And yet I cannot be killed. I am immortal. Who has the power now, friend?"

He turned on his heel, striding towards the door without another word. He didn't need to say anything else. He'd made his point and weakened Marcel's hold on the Quarter all at the same time. I stared at the dying vampire in my arms, his head cradled in my good arm. Black veins of poison spiraled out from the bite on his throat, growing longer and larger with each beat of his heart. I had a split-second to hope that maybe whatever made my blood so nourishing to vampires might buy him some time. I had less than that to pray that Niklaus had forgotten me. That he had someone new to torture.

His hand landed on the back of my neck, and I barely had the forethought to lay the dying vampire's head on the cement before I was pulled to my feet. My eyes met Marcel's for a brief second. Enough to mouth an 'I'm sorry' before we were back on Royal Street and headed to parts unknown. I could only pray that Elijah at least shoved my friends into a cab bound for our hotel.

It was the best I could hope for.


	5. Chapter 5

_Dear Diary,_

 _Their voices swirl around my thoughts like twin whirlwinds, like two opposing cyclones orbiting one another and leaving swaths of emotional devastation across my soul._

 _I must stay._

 _I can't go._

 _I promised HIM._

 _But HE wants something else entirely._

 _I'm drowning, dear lord, I'm drowning in wants and desires that aren't entirely my own._

* * *

Once leaving Marcel's party, Niklaus and I wandered all over the French Quarter, though I knew not what he was searching for. He wasn't in the mood to speak and I wasn't in the mood to die, so I kept my mouth shut. Sometimes he held my arm, or my waist, dragging me through the crowds of tourists in a mock semblance of young lovers out for a night of fun in the French Quarter. I might have been flattered if I wasn't so frightened. Who else could claim both Elijah and Niklaus pretending to be your date in the same night?

In the less frequented, less public-friendly alleyways, I walked beside him without his hands on me. I knew better than to try and run. Despite the racing of my heart, the sheer utter panic demanding that I do exactly that, running only lead to disaster. I'd tried before in Mystic Falls, running from Elijah in the woods near the old church ruins. He'd done more than chase me, his eyes black with power and his face marked in fury. It was the beginning of the end between us, the ultimate breaking of trust with him, and he'd—

No. I wouldn't think of that. I'd learned my lesson well that night. If a Mikaelson wanted you to do something, it was easier just to do it and pray they forgot you the moment after.

Niklaus didn't forget me, however. The pressure of his hand on my flesh a heavy reminder that this wasn't a date. I wasn't his sweetheart, and this wasn't going to end in any kiss ever represented in a love story. His blue-green stare swept over me every so often, the rage blistering my skin. I wasn't the target of that anger, not completely, or I wouldn't be alive. But I was associated with the source of his ire, and that was grounds for hysteria all on its own. I tried my best to keep pace with him, to pretend I wasn't there.

Yet even that seemed to annoy him.

"I can smell your terror from here, little one."

The words were so surprising, so shocking, after hours of wandering in silence that I literally tripped over them. He was in my way before I hit the ground, and I slammed into him, his chest less forgiving than the pavement.

"I-I-I'm s-sorry," I gasped, instantly trying to push away.

If the Mikaelson brothers had anything in common, it was that damn arm of steel. It wrapped around my waist, all but welding me to the monster.

"I don't want your apology," he snapped. "I want your cooperation."

Cooperation? What?

"I-I don't understand. Please, Niklaus—"

"Oh, enough of the 'please, Niklaus'," he growled, gripped the back of my neck and craning my face up to his. "I've heard that particular song so often this night, I'm beginning to wonder if it's a new city anthem. Is it really so hard to do as I tell you?"

My hand shook, hovering above his shoulder, afraid to touch him again lest I end up with two useless arms.

"If I knew what you wanted, I'd do it," I sputtered as quickly as I could, words practically tripping all over themselves in their haste to be heard. "Or I'd give it to you."

"What I want is to be left alone. What I want is to leave this wretched city and return to my home."

I stared at him in utter loss, my expression all but promising him I wanted the exact same thing.

It wasn't enough.

"But you see, I can't," he whispered theatrically, tipping my head painfully to the left, as if he could still see Elijah's bite on my skin. "I have a problem entitled 'older brother and his meddling little pet psychic.' You have no idea how desperately I want to be rid of both of you."

He stretched my neck until vertebrae popped and the sob I'd held back burst from my lips. It hurt, oh god, it hurt.

Niklaus leaned in, whispering an inch from my lips. "Elijah thinks he needs you for some purpose, and I want to know what that is before I end you."

I couldn't swallow at that angle, going up on tip toes to try and ease the strain. One more inch of pressure, one tiny twist, and my neck would snap.

"He wants me to leave," I managed out.

"I don't believe you."

"Plea—"

"No."

"I don't know what you want me to do or say!"

The old plaster wall was suddenly at my back, greeting me with enough force to knock the wind from me.

"For now, I want your obedience. And if memory serves, there's only one way that will happen."

He wrenched my head to the right and bit hard.

I wanted to say that it hurt, that he was cruel and a bastard to me. And while the initial strike was painful, the rest so wasn't. He and Elijah had turned their feeding into an art form. The way his mouth moved as he swallowed sent jolts of pleasure through my nerve endings, his grip adjusting the more I surrendered. My knees gave out, my head spinning from more than just the pleasure. Elijah had already taken his proverbial pound of flesh from me. I didn't have much left to give Niklaus, but that didn't seem to bother him. I went slack against him, his arm holding me upright, my tears falling down my cheeks, mixing with the blood he stole.

Thankfully, all it took was a swallow or three for him to find his fill. But given how fast they could draw on a vein, three swallows was all I had left to give.

We both gasped as he pulled back, him in the sweet, sweet ecstasy of feeding, and I in the actual need to pull air into my lungs. Twice. I'd been fed on twice in the same night. If a human body contained nine pints of blood, I'd lost two tonight. One more drop lost, and I'd die.

Trembling started in my limbs, a trembling I couldn't stop. The air which had been unbearably hot now painful and chilling against my skin. Cold sweat beaded on my forehead and it was hard to catch my breath. But my wounded arm stopped it pulsing ache, all but going numb.

Come to think of it, so had the rest of me.

I couldn't feel my feet at all.

Too much blood loss. I was going into shock.

Unlike his brother, he let go of me. Watched me slide to that dirty street with the rest of the garbage.

Watching in a sort of detached satisfaction as I attempted to keep myself upright and failed miserably. I lay at his feet, crumpled and broken like all the other gutter trash, gasping and shaking, trying to stem the flow of of my own blood with too pale, too weak fingers.

"And at last we have quiet," he smiled, lowering himself down on his heels beside me. "The incessant rapid beat of your heart was proving rather annoying. But we've fixed that, haven't we?" Two fingers brushed the hair from my face, giving him a clear view to my eyes. "All the fear you rightfully feel pumping through your soul without that futile racing of your heart. See, obeying me isn't so hard, is it?"

His eyes glowed with the power of my stolen blood, and I didn't bother to close mine. I knew it wouldn't make a bit of difference. I met that gaze as openly as I could.

His smile grew. "Good, you remember I do prefer to look my pawn's in the eye when issuing orders."

It was getting harder and harder to breathe, to stay awake and focus, but my brain latched onto a single truth in his words. Latched on and wouldn't let go.

"Pawn," I gasped, the words barely audible. "You aren't killing me?"

"I didn't say that. You'll die, my little Alynia, very slowly and very painfully if I have my way. But first I have something I need you to do. Now, listen closely…"

His compulsion, riding on the power of my blood, sank into my mind and all the way to the depths of my soul.

* * *

Fire scorched my nerve endings from the mouth down, my spine bowing from the delicious pain. One hand pressed my sternum, forcing me back against the mattress while the liquid flame rushed through me. My hands—both hands—latched onto his arm, my mouth suckling his wrist, tongue tracing the puncture marks and pulling the tiniest gasp from his lips. The more he gave me, the more the numbness receded and the more alive I felt.

I needed it.

Wanted it.

Craved it.

Delicious, live-giving, blood.

… Blood?

I pushed his wrist away, nearly gagging. "Oh god."

"Not nearly as powerful, thank you," Elijah smirked, rolling his sleeve back in place. "But I do aspire to such."

My hands flew to my mouth, fingers coming back slick with his blood. Everything inside of me wanted to shove to my feet, run to the bathroom, and vomit up every ounce of his blood. Not because it was his, but because it was _blood._

I'd drank blood.

Again.

But that was as useless as trying to run away from the Mikaelsons. His blood was part of me now, sustaining my life force until my own body could replenish what'd been stolen from me.

He stood there in silence, allowing the two stages of Mikaelson grief to run their course: Panic, and the Acceptance of my New Perpetual State of Panic.

"No need to ask what happened," he handed me a kerchief from his pocket. "I know my brother's handiwork by now."

I accepted the square of silk and put it to use against my face. "Does this… does it invalidate our deal?"

"You mean did I fulfill my end of the bargain and deliver your friends safely? The answer is yes. With Ellis in the hospital, I left Dani and Lexi in the same room. They're sleeping currently, giving us this chance for a little chat."

The relief I'd felt in knowing my friends were okay dimmed a bit those last three words, remembering the first time we'd had a 'chat.'

###

" _Forgive the intrusion," Death smiled amicably, gently flipping through the books on my sister's dresser. "I mean your family no harm."_

 _Elena and I exchanged a quick glance, huddled together in the corner of her room near the closet. I stood a whole step ahead of her, my heart racing like never before. Damon and Stefan had warned me Elijah was still alive somehow. Someway. An Original vampire had powers we could only guess at, and since I'd been compelled by one, we had no idea what that meant for me._

 _Standing there, trying so hard to be brave and protect my sister, I knew. I wanted to run to him so badly, hug him and cry and be thankful that the only person who'd tried to protect ME since Mom and Dad had died wasn't dead, himself._

 _The sad thing about that was that had nothing to do with his compulsion to obey him. That ended the moment he'd 'died' against that door. It had everything to do with me wanting so desperately to feel that safe again. To just be sixteen again, to have a grown-up hold me and tell me everything was going to be okay. That's the power he awakened inside of me, the yearning to have that safety he promised. Even without the compulsion, it ate me alive and poisoned my dreams._

 _I loved him. I hated him._

" _Why did you kill the vampires when they tried to take me?" Elena asked._

 _Elijah finished his visual inspection of Elena's room, sitting in the bay window seat. His eyes remained transfixed on Elena, though I saw them glance every so often in my direction. An almost hint of a smile quirked the corner of his mouth, the barest of nods tipping his head in my direction. Approval of my protection of Elena, such that it was? A greeting?_

" _Because I didn't want you to be taken," he explained simply. "Klaus is the most feared and hated of the Originals, but those that fear him are desperate for his approval. Word gets out that the doppleganger exists, there'll be a line of vampires eager to take you to him and I can't have that."_

 _Again, Elena and I exchanged a glance._

" _Isn't that what you're trying to do?" I dared to ask._

" _Let's just say that my goal is not to break the curse."_

" _What is your goal?" Elena asked._

" _Klaus's obsessions have made him paranoid. He's a recluse. He trusts only those in his immediate circle."_

 _That wasn't an answer, and the way I frowned at him brought the hint of a smile to life for a second._

" _Like you?"_

 _He shook his head, focused on Elena again. "Not anymore."_

 _And then we got it, a truth that made me go pale and Elena shake her head. "You don't know where he is, do you?"_

 _He looked away from us, and I grabbed handfuls of my hair in near frustration. "So you're trying to use my sister to draw him out."_

" _Well to do that," he glanced back at us. "I need Elena to stay put and stop trying to get herself killed."_

 _Elena thought that one over for a moment. "How do I know you're telling the truth?"_

" _Well, if I wasn't being truthful, your family would be dead and I'd be taking the both of you with me. Instead, I'm here and I'm prepared to offer you a deal."_

 _This time Elena shouldered past me, taking on the older sister protective role for the first time in a long while. "Nia isn't a doppleganger."_

" _No, she isn't," he agreed, that dark-eyed stare focusing solely on me. "Her part in this drama is yet to be determined outside of the fact that I sense she has a part. A vital part in fact."_

 _Elena closed her eyes and nodded as if to herself. "That's why you compelled her to obey you, rather than hurting her."_

 _This time he smiled, a true smile. "Exactly. Now, let us discuss the terms of this deal, shall we?"_

" _What kind of deal?" Elena asked._

 _He rose, and it was my turn to shoulder past her and stand all protective-like. Elena was the main target of all this insanity, and I wasn't about to loose my sister. I'd die first… if he'd let me, that was. God, what where we going to do?_

" _Do nothing," he stopped right in front of me, close enough to touch. "The both of you will do nothing and live your life. Stop fighting, and then when the time is right, the three of us shall draw Klaus out together, and I shall make certain your friends remain unharmed."_

" _The two of us," Elena blurted. "Nia stays out of it. She's a child, Elijah."_

 _He shook his head slowly. "That's not how this works," he lifted a hand, forestalling her argument. "I would do as you asked if it was in my power to do, Elena. It is not my way to harm children. However, she is part of this as I've said. That is non-negotiable."_

 _I glanced at Elena, stepped up beside her, and took her hand in mine. "I'm not going to leave you," I promised. "You're my sister. I love you."_

 _Something bittersweet tinted the pleasant expression on his face, something that edged towards sadness as he stared at our clasped hands. "Do we have a deal?"_

" _What happens after we draw Klaus into the open?" I asked._

" _Then I kill him."_

" _Just like that?" Elena eyed him skeptically._

" _Just like that," he nodded. "I'm a man of my word. I make a deal, I keep a deal."_

 _Elena's hand tightened on mine. "How are you going to be able to keep everyone safe?"_

" _You know, I noticed you have a friend—Bonnie is it? She seems to possess the gift of magic. I have friends with similar gifts."_

" _You know witches," Elena confirmed._

" _And together we can protect everyone that matters to you," he took the final step forward, and for once we didn't step away. That seemed to please him. "So do we have a deal?"_

 _Elena opened her mouth to agree, and I squeezed her hand hard. Hard enough that she closed her mouth and glanced at me. The expression questioning._

" _Witches," I sputtered quickly, hope blossoming to life in my heart. "He knows witches, powerful witches, that could help Stefan."_

 _She got what I was driving at in that second, eyes widening and lighting up for the first time in days. Witches powerful enough, perhaps, to save Stefan from the tomb beneath the church. It was worth a shot. Elijah stood rather impatiently, glancing between us, and I swore his jaw twitched, almost like he was running his tongue across a rather pointed fang. We were exhausting his pleasant hospitality, and that wasn't a good idea in the slightest._

" _I need you to do one more thing for me," Elena said quickly._

 _We were treated to a rare experience of witnessing mild surprise on his face. "We're negotiating?"_

 _###_

We had negotiated with him, and won Stefan's freedom that night. Glancing into that same face, that ageless, unreadable expression, I knew my chances of negotiating my way out of this situation was beyond slim. There was no deal for me anymore.

"Did he compel you?" Elijah asked.

I didn't need to ask which him he was referring to. "Yes."

"Before or after he fed on you?"

"After."

He frowned. "And if I were to tell you the terms of our deal are complete, that you are free to leave New Orleans—right now—per our arrangement?"

"No," the word flew out of my mouth before I could clamp my teeth around it. My eyes widened. "Oh god."

"You say that so often. You do realize it's going to take more than prayer to save you this time."

"I can't leave," I repeated, staring at him in muted panic. "Niklaus doesn't want me to leave."

"So it would seem."

"Why?"

His lips twisted in a less than comforting smile. "You ask the wrong brother. Tell me what he instructed you to do."

I opened my mouth and then closed it again. "I can't."

"Ah," was all he said.

"No, it's not like that," I sat up quickly and nearly fell back down again, holding a hand out to him almost imploringly. "I literally can't remember. I can feel it there, an urging pressure at the back of my mind, but I don't know what it is. I… I would tell you if I could. Please believe me, Elijah. I've always been honest with you."

That earned a bit of a raised eyebrow. "Always?"

I blushed as much as my pale, blood-loss cheeks would allow, lowering my hand. "That doesn't count. You know why," he made a non-committal sound, and I rubbed my temples. "You're going to hold that over my head forever, aren't you."

He crossed is arms over his chest. "Not forever."

"I was a child, Elijah. I was doing what I thought was best for my family."

"Which is the only reason you are still alive."

"So that means you and your brother will torture me instead?"

"On the contrary," he took a seat on the bed opposite mine. "The last time I checked, you were free to live your life as you wished, Alynia. So long as our paths never crossed again. That was the deal."

"And it wasn't my idea to violate it, I—"

Christ, it clicked. All the pieces suddenly fell into place. All the craziness from the moment Niklaus returned to my life snapped into clarity.

"Does the name Deveroux mean anything to you?" I asked.

He closed the distance between me and the bed in less than a blink, looming over me, one hand on my shoulder.

I swallowed hard, feeling the steel in those fingers flex. "I take that as a yes?"

"Tell me what you know quickly, and I suggest you be succinct."

"I need reassurances first, I—"

I cut off as his fingers flexed, fresh waves of pain spiraling down my arm. "This is our second deal to fall apart, Alynia. You were extremely lucky to get the second one as it is, and now you dare to try to negotiate a third?"

I wrapped my fingers around his wrist, wincing. "Our second deal still stands. I haven't left New Orleans yet. My blood is still yours until I do. Just, please, keep my friends safe."

"I told you I cannot promise this with Niklaus involved. Your friend, Ellis, is already suffering for it."

"Not from Niklaus."

And then he got it, too. I was negotiating protection from _him_. The pressure from those fingers eased, the grip remained.

"You were lured here, too, by someone you mistakenly trusted. By one of your little friends," he nodded. "And now you want to ensure I won't take my vengeance on her for it."

It wasn't a question. I took a deep breath, released his wrist. "Yes."

He glanced over his shoulder, as if he could see through the wall to the two sleeping forms beyond. "Which one is the Deveroux?"

I hesitated, and it was the wrong move. He headed towards the door without a word. And I knew towards the room next to mine.

"No, Elijah, please! I'll tell you," I ran after him, the world swimming in and out of focus on a wave of blood loss and fear induced adrenaline. He let me catch him at the door, my hand closing over his on the knob. He stared straight ahead, the displeasure on his face enough to make my knees weak.

"The only reason you still draw breath right now, Alynia Ghilbert, is that I believe you are truly innocent in all this. That ends now. If I learn for a second you're withholding information from me again—regardless of the reason—I will kill you and your friends. Do you understand?"

Both my hands wrapped around his and I bowed my head. "I understand. Please, understand in return, that she's like a sister to me."

"While your loyalty is noted, it is now to be forgotten. From this moment on, your loyalty is to me, or we're done."

Those words coming from his lips were foreign, damn near blasphemous. The look on my face must have reflected that. After all, it was my loyalty to my family that saved my life when I broke our first deal.

His expression didn't change, didn't so much as flinch. "To me, Alynia," he reiterated. "This is not Mystic Falls. The stakes in this gamble have changed rather dramatically. You are loyal to me, or our agreement ends, including any further assistance from me in regards to Niklaus."

"Do I even get to know why this is happening, any of it?"

His fingers turned the knob, my fingers sliding over his until they somehow twined.

"A conversation with your so-called friend, I believe, will clarify many of our mutual questions."

He lead me down the hall.

* * *

Lexi didn't so much as wake up at the sound of his voice as simply become aware. He called her name, and like out of every B-rated Dracula movie from the 1970's, her eyes just opened. Like the Bride of Dracula, she was instantly, almost supernaturally, awake.

And yet not.

Her chest moved up and down with the even relaxed rhythm of the deeply asleep.

"She's still compelled," I voiced the obvious aloud.

Elijah slanted me a look that went somewhere between "of course" and dark amusement. "After seeing you in my brother's company, I thought it best to protect the perimeters of our agreement until we spoke," he crossed over to where Lexi sat on the edge of the bed, face as blank as when I'd seen it at Marcel's.

Dani let out a very faint snore.

He sat next to Lexi, her blank expression turning towards him. I hovered at his other side, shifting from foot to foot, terrified of what we might learn from her.

"Alexandra," he began, staring deeply into her unblinking eyes.

"Yes?" her voice was so utterly empty.

"Did you lure Alynia here on purpose?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Because of her connection to the doppleganger and to Niklaus."

I gasped, hands flying to my lips. "How did she know that? I never told anyone about Elena being the Petrova doppleganger."

"Answer her, Alexandra."

"My aunt told me. I didn't want bring Nia here, and refused at first, but my aunt promised it was for the best."

"Who is your aunt?" he asked.

"Sophie Deveroux."

Elijah flicked a glance my way, a glance that wasn't happy at all. "Did you know about this, Alynia?"

I started to shake my head and stopped. Honesty in everything, or he'd kill me. "I knew Lexi had an aunt named Sophie, but I still don't understand why that matters."

He compressed his lips, clearly unhappy, but that wasn't completely in my direction. He glanced back to Lexi, reaching out a hand to cup her cheek almost gently. "Why did Sophie Deveroux want Alynia here in New Orleans, given she already had Hayley in her possession?"

Hayley? Who the hell was Hayley?

"Hayley and the baby may not have been enough," Lexi continued in that dreamlike voice. "She knew Niklaus held a grudge against the doppleganger's family. If the ploy with the baby did not work, offering Alynia's blood as a trade for Marcel's head was our last hope."

"Baby?" I blurted. "What baby?"

Elijah's previous command to answer me still held sway, because Lexi continued. "Niklaus's baby. The werewolf girl, Hayley, is pregnant with his child."

My ass hit the floor before I realized my knees had buckled. Elijah remained silent, unmoving, a statute in living color. Which was bad, oh so bad.

 _ALL_ of this was bad.

But now I knew. I knew why The Original Family was in New Orleans. I knew why _I_ was here and why my presence sent every protective instinct in Elijah into overdrive. It was the baby, a Mikaelson baby, in the hands of someone he clearly didn't like. And he'd seen me as a possible threat there at that bar, given our history. No wonder he'd tried to get me the hell out of town. He'd probably already figured out I was a pawn of this Sophie Deveroux as much as he was.

He just didn't know the whole of it until now.

"It's yours," I whispered through stiff lips. "My loyalty is yours. My blood, too, if it will help. My god, a baby."

Still he didn't move, eyes locked on Lexi. "Think this through, Alynia," He warned. "This is your crossroads, your precipice, right now. With the power from your blood, I can erase your memory and remove Niklaus's compulsion. I can send you on your way. You can return to your normal life. If you give me your loyalty, that option goes away."

"If I chose to leave, what would happen to Lexi?"

"Her life is no longer your concern."

"Eli—"

"No, Alynia," he cut me off, tone leaving zero room for argument. "No bargaining. No deal. Not for her."

I looked down, tears making their way down my cheeks. "Niklaus would come for me."

"Eventually. Understand he has other pressing concerns that may hold his attention for years or even decades."

"By that time, I'll have a baby of my own," I whispered dully.

He said nothing to that. We both knew what it would mean. My children and my children's children would not be safe if I left. If I chose to have any with that threat looming over my head, that is. I had to wonder if I'd ever really been free, or if the past six years were nothing more than a temporary reprieve.

"They—whomever these Deveroux are—are using a baby as a tool," He flinched slightly at that, but didn't bother to correct me. "This is your family and I know what that means to you. Christ, I just lost the last of mine, so how could I live with myself if I let you loose yours?"

He turned then, eyes narrowing in slight concern. "Elena?"

"Sleeping," I sighed, drawing my knees to my chest and wrapping my arms around them. "The long and short of it is this: Elena and Bonnie were severely hurt in some sort of witchy attack. The only way one of them could come back from the Other Side was if the other remained dead. We were able to work it so that Bonnie came back, but Elena can't wake while Bonnie's still alive.

I closed my eyes against a fresh wave of pain and memories. "Elena will sleep until Bonnie is dead. And we both know how long a witch can live. By the time Elena wakes, I'll be dust in my grave. So here I am, alone, and trying to build a new family of friends," I glanced at Lexi's trance-like face. "Guess I screwed that up, too."

"You are never alone, Alynia," he said softly, the shift in his demeanor enough that I met his gaze. "I made you that promise in Mystic Falls."

"And my actions against you invalidated that, remember?" I said bitterly.

A ghost of a smile of all things touched his mouth. "I'm still very upset with you, but that doesn't alter my word. You should have called me. Yes, even with our arrangement to never cross paths again. This is an extenuating circumstance. No one deserves to be utterly alone. You should have called."

"Another transgression against you, I suppose," I tried to shrug, but my heart wasn't in the action. "Can you forgive me for not wanting vampires in my life anymore, for wanting a normal life? To just be human?"

Something in that question struck a cord in him. His expression didn't change, but it somehow softened, empathy turning the cold obsidian of his gaze to a gentle shadow, less sharp.

"Forgiven," he said, holding out a hand to me.

I took it, letting him pull me to the bed next to him. "I really don't understand you, Elijah Mikaelson. You blow hot, you blow cold. You tell me I can always count on you and that you're terribly upset with me in the same breath."

He chuckled softly. "All of that's true," he laced his fingers with mine, his other hand rising to cup my cheek. "Our history in Mystic Falls will always color our endeavors. That will never change. But I will not leave you to loneliness. That I owe to Elena. Your sister loved you very much, Alynia. If for that alone, I'll stand in her place until she awakens."

I wanted to nod, and stopped the instinct before it began. "Deal," I said on reflex, and blushed at his soft laughter. "Right. No more deals. Just promises."

"Just promises," he said.

And I knew what was coming next, felt his thoughts slipping between mine, his will twisting with mine until I couldn't tell where my desires ended and his began.

"I accept your offer of loyalty," he said. "To protect you, accept my oath in return. You will not betray what you have learned tonight to anyone in any way. These secrets remain part of the Mikaelson Family. The knowledge of the baby chief among them. Help me to protect this child and all past transgressions are forgiven. And I will help you free Elena and Bonnie from this enchantment."

I shivered as the words sank into my soul, sparks of ethereal energy shocking me as his compulsions created friction with the dark objects of Niklaus's will. His mind slid across those amorphous blocks, probing and understanding them as I gasped and trembled. One arm snaked around my shoulders, holding me stead as his mental fingers did their exploring.

"I see," he said at length, those probing fingers withdrawing and leaving the blocks in their place. "For now, these will keep. Only for now," he echoed as I attempted to argue, his fingertips brushing my lips. "Let us fight one battle at a time."

"Will you tell me what Niklaus did to my mind?"

"No, but trust me then I say I have you."

"You said you couldn't protect me from Niklaus."

"So how have I got you?" He smiled faintly. "Let's say your status on this chessboard just changed." He released me, rising to his feet, and glancing at his phone. "I must go. In the meantime, I need you to make arrangements for me. I'm texting you a number right now. Call it and have the house released into your care. See to it that staffing and cleaning services are arranged, and food is stocked." He reached into his wallet and handed me a credit card. All black with no numbers or letters. "We're going to be there a while if I have my way."

I took the card. "Not that I'm going back on my word, but what about my friends? We were supposed to leave tomorrow to go home."

"You are home now," he said, matter of factly, and turned to Dani's sleeping form. "Danielle, you will go home as planned. You and Ellis had a fight, whic—"

Like Lexi before her, Dani instantly opened her eyes, rising without waking to sit on the side of the bed. She listened to Elijah with rapt adoration.

I surprised him, and myself, by putting a hand to his lips for a change. "Le… let me, please. They are my family, and I know what they'll believe and not question."

He nodded, standing behind me as I took a deep breath. "Dani, you get to go home as we planned. And you're rightly upset about going home alone. It's just that Lexi had a family emergency that's keeping her behind, and we both know that Ellis won't leave Lexi's side. They may squabble, but they're bonded as deeply as we are," I took her hand in mind, swallowing convulsively to keep from sobbing. "I… I found a job opportunity here in New Orleans that I wanted to entertain. Good money here in the south, and you know how much I love sweet tea and grits for breakfast."

Even in her trance-like state, she huffed out a tiny snort of mock derision. It tugged so hard at my heart I leaned forward and hugged her tightly. "I love you, Dani. And we'll see each other again sometime. I hope."

Elijah's hand on my shoulder, gentle this time, pulled me back. "It's done, Alynia. Well done."

"Loyalty," I whispered, rising to my feet and watching Dani slip blissfully back into dreamland. "She's going to call me in five days, almost to the mark. Will… will I be able to answer?"

"If I have my way, yes."

I let out a breath I wasn't aware I was holding. "Right," I gave myself a shake, pulling my phone from my pocket and glancing at his text. "We both have our work cut out for us tonight, then."

That half-smile returned, and this time it held the tiniest hint of warmth. "I said the same thing earlier. Oh," he glanced back over his shoulder. "Dani, I want you to pack up every single item that belongs to Ellis and Lexi and Alynia. You won't remember doing it. In fact, you'll remember everything just as Alynia laid it out for you. Understand?"

"I understand," she whispered with her eyes closed.

"Good. To work, then."

I followed him wordlessly from the room, and went about my own task.


	6. Chapter 6

_Dear Diary,_

 _Even a gilded cage, situated in the most beautiful place, is still a cage…_

#

Elijah called it a house. A more accurate description of the place was 'massive civil-war era plantation.' It towered above the ancient trees, three stories worth of 'Gone with the Wind' level architecture nestled in the center of more acreage than I could count. Add to that an attic, a basement, a wine cellar, two guest houses around back, and a 'carriage house' (re: detached garage), and you had the blueprint for most impressive estate I'd ever seen.

The land, if not the house, was older than the civil war, and all held in trust by one of Elijah's many dummy corporations. Whomever was set to care for the house in his absence was paid well enough to send a car to meet me at the hotel.

At two in the goddamn morning. No questions asked.

All I'd needed to say was the name 'Elijah Smith' and tell them I had the 'black card.'

An expensive Lincoln town car brought me to their- _our_ -new home. Even in the dead of night, the house was breath-taking. The lawn well-manicured and a lush emerald green despite the summer heat, the crushed marble driveway gleaming too white by contrast in the floodlights. Softer illumination flickered in the outdoor wall sconces and chandelier, casting inviting shadows of warmth across the white-washed exterior walls.

Scents of apple blossoms drifted lazily on the still air, lending a false sense of purity and innocence to the place. I knew better. Anything that once held generations of slaves wasn't pure, and I doubted severely anything the Mikaelson Clan did counted as innocent anymore.

Especially since I was the newest 'slave' on the plantation. If not slave, at least an unwilling occupant and participant in the Mikaelson drama.

But I didn't have time to bitterly lament my fate as Elijah's little pet. Hints of the approaching dawn clawed at my soul, a warning to move faster. Somehow, I had to get this place ready for Niklaus and Elijah's arrival, and then get gone, myself, before they showed up at sunrise. It was a fear I couldn't shake.

Compulsion to hurry. It had to be. Though whether it was Elijah's or Niklaus's, I couldn't tell.

"We keep the house just as Mr. Smith wishes," Mr. Jerry Jarrette, the attorney-turned-midnight-tour-guide, swung the double front doors wide. "All original furnishings, finishes, and antiques cataloged and resting in their proper places."

I stepped with a firm _clack_ onto true, well-cared for hardwood, the surface polished to a mirror shine. "Electrical?"

Jerry flipped a cleverly concealed wall switch next to an old-fashioned gas sconce. Soft electric light drifted down from chandeliers and other identical sconces on the walls. "All up to code," he confirmed. "As you can see in the drawings, we completed the electrical refit three years ago."

I glanced down at the iPad in my hands, pulling up the blueprints and inspection reports. All appeared in proper order, at least as far as the city was concerned.

"The roof?" I asked.

"Recently replaced after Hurricane Katrina and brought up to the latest building codes as well."

"What about the foundation?"

"Repaired with the latest injectable concrete technology. All structural columns were likewise braced and reinforced," he smiled down at me. "Might I say, it's quite nice to work with an engineer for a change. I must complement Mr. Smith on his choice of assistants."

I almost tripped over his words. Elijah's assistant? Had there been a double meaning to my own excuse of "job offer" in New Orleans? It took effort to repress the shiver down my spine.

"Temporarily," I clarified. "I'm a special hire for a time."

Jerry gave me what I'm sure he believed was a knowing and reassuring smile. "I was a temporary hire once, too. You'll find working for Mr. Smith too good to give up. The benefits far outweigh any offered in the public sector."

Thank god he'd turned away. He didn't see the fleeting terror on my face, or the way my hand rose to my throat. I could still feel Niklaus's bite-and Elijan's-throbbing on either side of my neck. I had to wonder if my benefit of "being alive" right now wasn't so much a bad thing instead of good.

Sometimes death wasn't a thing to be feared.

Jerry lead me through the house, answering my questions with clear and precise detail. He never quibbled or frowned when I asked to view basements, columns, craw spaces, and wiring. My background in structural engineering more than screamed my qualifications to ask those questions. That, and the fact I was speaking in Elijah's name.

God. _GOD!_ I really was his assistant now, wasn't I?

I shoved down the panic, focusing hard on my inspections of all structures on the property. Green house, fountains, historical servant's quarters, slaves quarters, barns, et al. Everything was up to code, furnished, and move-in ready.

"What about heating and cooling?"

"The original furnaces supply more than enough heat. Again, all up to current code," he hesitated a moment, a worried expression on his weathered face. "Mr. Smith has never asked for any air conditioning to be installed."

I started to gape at him, but suppressed the urge. The explanation was apparent to those who could see it. These old homes were built to allow airflow in summers, the windows and doors strategically placed to capture summer breezes and distribute them throughout the house. While Louisiana could get blisteringly hot, it never got "stuffy" in the plantations. No need to recycle the air to prevent humidity-based mold with care-takers airing out the house near daily.

Not to mention that vampires didn't mind the heat at all. Didn't sweat. So no need for A/C.

"The caretakers bring in portable A/C?"

"They did during restoration work," he clarified. "Otherwise we followed instructions to maintain the original integrity of the property as much as possible."

I nodded. "I'm going to need several of the portable units. Two in one of the guest houses in the back. One to be brought upstairs. I'll install it myself when a room is chosen by… the main guest."

I couldn't even say Hayley's name aloud. Yay compulsion keeping Mikaelson secrets as secrets.

"At once," Jerry said, pulling out his phone and texting. "I had my best crew placed on standby the moment you called. It will be handled immediately."

I glanced out the window, at the rapidly lightening sky. "Good. Now, I need a ride to a grocery store. I have no idea what Mr. M-Smith-wants, but I'm certain neither does he. I'm thinking basics, though."

"I can supply you with the list I ordered the last time he was here."

I glanced at the dust covers on the furnishings. "How long ago was that?"

"Nearly a decade or so," Jerry smiled that creepy, knowing smile at me. Like I'd pledged the wrong kind of fraternity and now there was no going back.

Apt, that.

"I told you, Mr. Smith pays well. You'll never leave once you get a taste."

My hands flew to my throat again, and I didn't care if he saw. "That's what I'm afraid of."

#

With Jerry's help, I managed to get the last of the food put away, the A/C units in place, and myself out of the main house before anyone arrived. Thanks to Jerry's standby team, the linens were changed in all the bedrooms, the furniture in them dusted and polished to a mirror shine. Fresh flowers were gently and discretely arranged in vases, their scents blanketing the ever-present musty smell all homes gathered due to disuse. A cold brunch of meats, cheeses, fruits and breads were out on the sideboard (Jerry's idea, bless the man) and bourbon filled every decanter in every room.

We'd even managed to uncover some of the furniture in the main parlor before the urge to run was near unstoppable.

Had to be Niklaus's compulsion to get gone from his presence unless called for.

I borrowed the car from Jerry, dropping him at his office before returning to the hotel. It was near nine in the morning and we were both beat. He'd promised to have a rental brought around for my approval later in the day, once we both had a chance to get some real sleep.

Dani was gone when I entered our room, predictably without leaving a note. Pissed at me for staying behind, no doubt. My tears were a mix of relief and sorrow. She was out of New Orleans, safe from all this nonsense. Safe from the vampires and the threat friendship with me posed.

One down, three more to go.

Per Elijah's orders, all my things were packed and ready, all waiting on a bellboy's trolley. Lexi sat on that bed just as Elijah had left her. Asleep with her eyes open, so deep in his power that it hurt to look at her. I pushed the trolley down to the car, Lexi walking in her zombie-like state silently beside me.

Elijah's compulsion held true. My friend would follow my every order so long as they did not conflict with his.

 _My friend._

God, could I even call her that anymore? Was she a friend, given how she and her family were planning to serve me up on a silver platter to Niklaus? That her family would use his own unborn child against him?

I shook my head. It didn't matter. She was a person, and I had to help her. Somehow.

Though I had no idea how.

I couldn't manage to even help myself.

I sobbed entire drive back to the plantation.

#

My lips were blue when I finally turned off the arctic stream pretending to be my shower. Apparently, I'd forgotten to check the guest house in my panic to get all other aspects of the planation up and running.

Pesky little details like water heaters in the guest house were at the bottom of my OMG PANIC LIST earlier in the night. I'd felt Niklaus's presence on the horizon like the first hint of thunder in the air. He was coming, and one of the compulsions he must have placed in my mind dealt with not being in his range of vision without his permission.

Unseen and unheard like good lil servants of old, but listening and eager to jump at his whim.

But Elijah's commands were damn near the opposite. He wanted me locked to the property, within easy reach whenever he needed me. He'd be displeased at my chosen room, namely that it wasn't in the main house. Yet thankfully the guest house was far enough away to suit Niklaus's commandment and just a little walk from the main house, which suited Elijah's commands.

God in heaven, they were going to rip me apart with these conflicting orders.

But cold showers were a small price to pay for having this little bit of privacy. They weren't in this building with me, and that suited _my_ own commands perfectly.

The falling ice water gave me time to think, which was both good and bad. Thinking meant I was safe for the moment, but reminded me that I hadn't slept in 24 hours now. I was running on gas station coffee and Elijah's blood at this point, and that only served to put the man in question front and center in my brain space.

Elijah… god. I was really and truly working for him.

I didn't know what to think of him anymore.

He was still mad at me for other past transgressions, but we did have a connection, an attraction, that tried its best to erase all the bad between us. His words in the hotel room was evidence enough of that. Not to mention the kiss at the bar-

NO. I would NOT think of that. I would not allow myself the luxury of turning him into some romantic figure in my head. He was a vampire, for god's sake. And I was, for all intents and purposes, his slave.

God, I needed sleep. I just needed to _sleep_ , and maybe common sense would trickle back into my addled brain _._

I turned off the spray, dressed in my pajamas, and stepped into the bedroom. "The water is cold, Lexi, but we can get clean and—"

Elijah stood at the foot of the bed, hands in his pockets, staring down at Lexi's sleeping form.

I swallowed a gasp, lips trembling from more than just the cold. Had he… was she…

"I have not decided her fate quite yet," he turned to me, as if reading my thoughts. "If that was your concern."

"One of many, yes," I managed, scrubbing the towel through my hair as I attempted to shove my heart back down into my chest.

I heard him settle into one of the plush chairs. Even the guest house in this place was grandiose, filled with antiques worth more than my life.

"I'm listening."

I blinked, glad for the towel to cover my shock. "What?"

"Your concerns," He said, crossing one ankle to his knee and folding his hands in his lap. "I'm ready to listen to them."

I took enough time drying my hair, composing myself and praying he interpreted my rapid heartbeat as fear.

"Okay," I said at length, turning to him and dropping the towel around my shoulders. "I—"

He was suddenly right in front of me, just close enough to kiss, his eyes narrowed slightly. "Your lips are blue," his fingertip touched my cheek. "And you're cold. Why?"

I jerked in surprise, trying to pull back from his fingers. He wasn't having that, and simply took a step forward again. That finger never moved, in fact held my face in place while his eyes tracked over my shoulder. No doubt taking in the lack of steam in the open bathroom door.

"Mr. Jarrette assured me the inspection of the property went well," he glanced back at me. "Clearly he was mistaken."

He released me, crossing to the hope chest next to the bed and removing a blanket from it.

"He wasn't mistaken, Elijah," I accepted the offered blanket, wrapping myself in it. "The main house has it's issues but it's structurally sound. It won't burn down due to a wiring snafu, and the roof and plumbing work like a charm."

"Not in the guest house, I see."

"Not in the guest house," I echoed. "No A/C, heat, or hot water. We didn't get that far in the inspection. And he did mention that your last instructions didn't contain the guest house."

He pursed his lips. "But you understood clearly that these structures are part of the main property."

"Yes, but I'm also an engineer," I answered carefully. That tone in Elijah's voice, the dismissal in his eyes. I had a feeling Jerry's continued employment, and possibly his life, depended on my defense of him. "He's a lawyer. He maintained them. He wouldn't know what to inspect, and he was ordered to maintain the original structures as close to their as-built status as he could. That wouldn't include upgrades."

He stared at me for a long moment, blinking once. Weighing my words, possibly? It was so hard to read that expression!

"Then you move into the main house," he said at length. "It's that simple. I did wonder why you'd taken residence here in the first place."

I sighed, pulling the blanket tighter around me. "That has to do with the second set of concerns. Are you even interested in why we didn't finish the inspection?"

"Very," he held out his hand to me. "Which I am happy to discuss with my personal aide, preferably over a warm beverage. Coffee was your choice if I remember correctly."

I blanched. "Jerry told you about the 'assistant' thing, didn't he?"

"He complemented me on a fine choice this time. What was it he called you-ah, yes, a 'splendid and highly knowledgeable young woman with steel in her spine and an unwillingness to accept obstacles toward her goal,'" the smile that touched his lips was darkly amused. "He told me I was insane to let you go, and he looks forward to working with you again. I, of course, informed him I had no intention of letting you escape me any time soon."

I shuddered a bit at that, holding onto the blanket as if it were the only thing holding my sanity inside me. "Being your assistant was the best explanation available to me without putting the man in danger of knowing something was odd with us."

"Do not fear me, Alynia," he took a step closer, palm still offered to me. "If I was angry with you about it, I suspect we'd have a much different conversation right now. You performed exceptionally well today, and for that you have my thanks. Why are you hesitant to take my hand?"

I didn't realize I was backing away until my back hit the wall.

"A lot of reasons," I gasped, realizing I was backing away from him. More specifically, I was backing away from the binding agreement that went along with taking his hand. "First being if I do, I'm accepting my future here. There's no going back."

His hand lowered, returned to his pocket. "You must understand by now that there was never a turning back for you. The moment Niklaus entered the picture, our fates were sealed."

"Our?"

The hint of the smile on his lips this time wasn't cold or sharp, instead it was almost bittersweet. "Alynia, I did not want this for you anymore than I wanted it for myself. In spite of our transgressions against each other in the past, I always hoped a sense of mutual respect remained between us. Enough that I fought to remove you from our family squabbles and give you the mortal life denied to your siblings."

I couldn't help but flinch at the mention of Elena and Jeremy. His fingers brushed my cheek again, coming away wet this time with my tears.

"Thank you for trying," I whispered and meant it.

"You're most welcome," He whispered back, the caressing fingers gently sliding around the back of my neck, holding me gently but firmly. "Understand, here and now, our fates are twined once again. There is no going back. Not now, and not ever."

The quiet steel in his words hammered that horrible truth home. Let me know he'd do everything-including take my life-if I tried to escape him. All because of his family, of his unborn niece or nephew. Or more to the point, how I fit in his equation to protect them.

I swallowed, nodding and brushing at my tears. "I know. I understand."

"Good," he rubbed his hands gently up and down my shoulders, stimulating warmth. "You are valuable to me, Alynia, for more than just your blood. Our allies run thin in this town, and I count you among them. You will serve as my personal assistant in mortal matters, and oversee such things when I'm not able. There is much work to be done to reestablish our holdings."

He offered his hand again and I took it. "Our?" I echoed again adumbly.

"Rebecca will join us eventually, and I'm certain there are issues you will assist Niklaus with-"

I pulled up short, and he turned, eyebrow raised. "I can't. I mean, not with Niklaus. It's why I'm not in the main house. Well, one of the reasons," I flicked a pointed glance at Lexi's sleeping form. "I don't know what Niklaus did to me, but I can't be around him or near him without his permission."

"And you can feel him approaching," he nodded. "Just as you can feel other vampires."

"I only feel them when I'm trying to sense them," I corrected. "Whatever Niklaus did to me, I'm constantly subconsciously searching for him. I can't turn it off."

He nodded as if to himself. "Which explains why you ran out of time inspecting the structures on the property."

My turn to nod. "Hence the cold shower. I completed everything to your requirements, with the added plus of Niklaus's comfort. I couldn't not do it."

"Allow me some time to discuss this issue with him. You cannot assist me fully if you aren't at my side."

I didn't answer, and he didn't need me to. We both understood the small joy Niklaus would take in forcing me to run and Elijah to run after me.

"Enough of this," Elijah broke the silence, and smiled faintly. "You are frozen to the bone. Let us go down to the kitchen."

"You mean the room with no power and no hot water?"

"The sun has risen. It will provide enough light. I'll bring us something warm to drink from the main house and we'll discuss our plans. After which, you must get some sleep. I assume you haven't slept yet?"

I shook my head and glanced towards Lexi again. He stopped me this time.

"Her fate is as bound to this course as ours. Put her out of your mind," he said firmly. "Never forget she's aligned with our enemy and your involvement here is a direct result of her actions."

He started down the stairs. My hand still in his, so it was either follow or be dragged behind him.

I followed.


End file.
